Bringing on Web 3.0, Part II

If Web 2.0 technology consists of wikis, blogs, simulations, user-generated learning content, shared workspaces, virtual worlds, and simulations what is Web 3.0? As I wrote in my first blog in this series, Web 3.0 is the way of making the technologies of Web 2.0 work smarter.

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) recently published a study with three points they see for Web 3.0:

1. They coin the word “Immernet”, which is technologies on the Internet providing the sense that people are immersed in the Internet.
2. Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Consortium (W3C) calls it the “Semantic Web.”
3. Web 3.0 includes Mobile web.

The study defines Web 3.0 as the technologies that “ultimately make data integration and access easier, helping to usher in an era of seamless connectivity to a smarter web, regardless of device.” Being able to find the correct information quickly will be easier in the future. Having the knowledge we need to succeed on the job will be readily accessible and therefore make learning effortless.

In the age of smartphones and now mobile tablets, linking learning to mobile devices hasn’t been a priority, but the demand for mobile learning is growing. Yet, taking an online learning course that has hand outs, videos, text, simulations, and images and all the other great features you can have in a course taken on a computer PLUS have all of that same content and features on a mobile device just isn’t feasible today. There are vendors that are making great strides. Though we do see bringing asynchronous learning to the mobile device on our doorsteps, in order to capitalize on social learning, we do need bring the semantic web into workplace.

Googling is only as good as long as there are no fire walls. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a company internal search engine as robust as Google that looks at all internal systems to bring back an answer that only can come in a secure form to the learner? That would take the leveraging of user generated content to a whole new level. It would also take knowledge bases to a new 3.0 level as well.

As we see these technologies emerge, those companies that grasp and build in the Web 3.0 functionality to make Web 2.0 smarter, will become more successful according to the ASTD study. “Companies that already have higher learning effectiveness and are using more cutting-edge learning technologies will be more likely to implement and gain from Web 3.0 over the next three years.” The study draws a clear conclusion that those companies that adopt the new learning technologies have the greatest learning effectiveness and market performance. As a learning and development professional, this is no surprise. Does it surprise you? Comment below.