Web 3.0 is RU -- Relevance & Utility

Personally, I'm not sure what all the hullabaloo about Web 2.0 has been. I understand that it's been about the individual being able to make themselves known in a big way. I get it.

But that's already been happening for years. eBay was giving people a forum for their own self-expression since 1995 albeit under the awning of selling whatever they happened to have around. All the meaningful content on that site was user generated and don't let anyone tell you any differently. The web has always been a wide open place for individual self-expression it was just that the barrier to entry was larger. Someone actually had to learn HTML to do something rather than type into an interface (like I'm doing right now).

With the advent of blogging and MySpace and Facebook and LinkedIn and Spock and Plaxo and all the other social networking and content generation sites, it seemed as if Web 2.0 was officially here. So why am I so unsatisfied?

Maybe it's because what everyone is calling Web 2.0 nowadays feels a lot like the Desktop Publishing boom of the 80's. Suddenly, the ability to generate, produce, and distribute printed matter was put into everyone's hands. Just because some can do something doesn't necessarily mean they should. Armed with a Mac, PageMaker and clip art, we were forced to endure some truly heinous design and creative. As Yogi Berra said, "It's like Dejá Vu all over again."

So I've decided to skip over Web 2.0--just move right by it and get to Web 3.0. Because the next wave is what this wave should have been about anyway: relevance and utility. Does it mean something to me and am I actually going to use it. Personally, I don't need something else to fritter my time away on while I'm trying to figure out if it works and, simply put, is there a there there.

I may be the lone voice, but I don't really care what my friends are doing every minute of every day. Somethings are better left unexpressed. This constant need to broadcast and "share" everything about themselves touches a narcissistic vein propelling it into exhibitionism. Privacy is more than keeping websites from obtaining and distributing personal information they have gleaned from me--it's also about leaving some things unsaid.

Again, does it mean something to me and am I going to use it. That's the new bar that needs to be reached. Otherwise, it's just empty bits which are just like empty calories: at times tasty but, in the end, unsatisfying.