A couple months ago I started trying to convince the NZfusion co-founders that the next big direction of the internet would be that of contextually relevant content, single sign-on social networks and a programmable platform; nothing new, but an amalgamation of the current web trends. My co-founders wanted more information and we quickly uncovered the semantic web. Unfortunately, people have been working on our next big thing for about 10 years now… RRW agrees, the semantic web is likely to be the next big thing… well, it might be.
What we are looking for at NZfusion, is a major project that will blow your minds - the only restriction is that we can think of it! I believed that this would be it; integration of the social networks, important information highlighted by your friends, acquaintances and industry experts. Information aligned to your interests, contextually assigned to how you work, think and play. The information will be peoples contact details, video, images, maps, calendars, events, product reviews and listings… You would sign in and manage all of your friends, acquaintances, applications and interests. Of course, if you had the knowledge, you could share it, or use it to create applications that ran on the platform, integrating the important information in a manner that suits your needs better than the default display applications.
Of course, I have been working on this post for the last couple of weeks, I’m not even close to understanding all of the potential of the technology to the user, or the different types of technology that have been explored in the realm. But what I am discovering is that theinternet may not be very far away from the technology I am describing above and the semantic web will provide this.
I expect it is going to be a little different to how the semantic web was imagined in 2001. The world was a boring place then, y2k and 2 digit years. But it will evolve into something much more interesting for you. The introduction of microformats has made the semantic dream less exclusive, as very little additional knowledge is required to make regular xhtml microformat rich.
There are also numerous services available to output microformatted contact information, resumes or events. These can then be interpreted more easily by applications like Yahoo Search, which could use the microformat to more sensibly display your CV in search results.
