FuTuRe WeB

When I started researching this topic, the distinction between web 1.0 and web 2.0 was still unclear to me until I found the following video on YouTube.



So clearly Web 2.0 is a marketting term. And thats what I had thought. So its just the use of existing technologies in a different way that is convenient for users and attractive. Now I am in a better position to predict the FuTuRe WeB (This is how logos are constructed in Web 2.0 world according to the following video)



Jokes apart. Every coin has two sides. And I believe that future web will be a mix of good things and bad things.

Good things first.

The next generation web will be a symbiosis of intelligent nodes. Yes, the conventional client server model may not live. Rather a P2P kind of model will be in place. Let me explain why. In my opinion, heres how we reached the web that we currently have. As computers became cheaper, more and more people started buying them. Soon, the static nature of the computer data made them too boring for use as an entertainment box. Also, the information that could be found was limited. So now people started using Web. They liked it due to its dynamic nature and then with increasing usage there was a need for faster connections. As broadband was introduced, we started hosting videos and other rich content. Thus the way we use the web has changed with change in technology. And change in technology was driven by the demand for a better experience. Soon, we will reach a point where we won't have enough bandwidth to host rich high quality content. Then we will need to break the conventional client server model. User communities will share content on P2P based web decreasing the load on the servers. May be bittorrent will be run from within a browser. Browsers will act as clients as well as servers. This kind of model will be possible because every internet user will have his own domain. The names will be weird though.

As Sarah has already mentioned, we will have devices that run only browsers. Browsers will be the new OSs. Internet OS will play an important role. If the connection is fast enough, it won't be hard to download 1GB of web operating system code in few seconds. With such high bandwidth, internet OS will act as fast as the desktop OS does. Network will be used as a platform. P2P architecture will also make distributed computing over the web far more effective.

With web OS, we will be able to deal with an open platform. Apps will be portable, easily upgradable, free! and we will have a file format independent web. Open ID variants will be a norm.

Semantic web will definitely find its wide use. If we want companies to share their data, we may need to go with the licensing model or enable those companies to show ads along with the data. Semantic web concepts will be used between client and server as well as between two servers.

HTTP could get replaced by something else. Something that supports P2P structure well.

Like google has now become a verb, other terms used in computer terminology will start finding their space in the dictionary. E.g. If you don't like someone you will ctrl-c him/her. After a  conference there will be F5-ments served. If you don't believe me, then you should watch this video.



Also, very thin sized computers will be available to drive the next web.



Now the bad part

Cyber crime will be a major concern. It will be very hard to track down the criminals due to the complex nature of the new web. There will be lot of privacy and security issues. Unless we educate the users, web won't be a safe place.
Life will be too much dependent on web. Would you be able to live without touching your computer for 8 consecutive days? People will be bored with social networking sites. They will realize that interacting with real people is more important than chatting with a stranger online. Overuse of web may have negative impact on people's physical and mental health. It is better to play some real sport rather than playing a computer game. Believe me, its good for health.

Serious attempts will be required on organizations' part to stop employees from wasting their time on social networking sites. Web should be used to make things convinient and easy and to make information accessible.
But good thing is that we will have tools to measure user's productivity.

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