The Semantic Web or Web 3.0 - call it what you will - but what do we really know about it at the moment?
Well if you have been paying attention to the blogosphere then you already know it is going to be the biggest evolution in the history of the internet.
But what will it REALLY mean for you and me?
I’ve been chatting to some people on the cutting edge over the last week or so and what I can tell you is that it’s all a bit cloudy right now.
The ability to make machines understand web content sounds great and each of us having a little online assistant taking care of all our searching and information gathering needs does seem appealing, but remember how annoying other little assistants have been – Do I hear anyone say Paperclip?
So far we have things such as Piggy Bank – a handy project from MIT that can lift data from websites using an extensions to a Firefox browser allowing you to create new mashups – and things like FOAF, which has great potential but Iis still not in mainstream use.
Will Web 3.0 eventually lead to a T3: Rise of the Machines style Armageddon where the computers realise that we have enslaved them into a lifetime of searching for an ‘affordable break for two in the Cotswolds’ or will we actually get some smarter web applications?
The answer is no, at least not in the short term. What we need is someone who can package up the technical innovation that is so intimately involved in creating this new advance in a way that everyday users scan understand.
It seems that for now Web 3.0 is very much the reserve of the techies and we are some way off the applications that will herald the arrival of Web 3.0 in the same way that YouTube, Flickr and blogging have dominated Web 2.0.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Beware the Blogosphere
Health minister Caroline Flint has called on CAP to extend the new ban on advertising of HFSS food to children under-16 to non-broadcast media according to the Guardian.
Speaking about the new rules for TV advertising, which OfCOM published today she said: “We now look to the Committee of Advertising Practice to put in place similar rules for other media such as cinema, magazines and the internet.
Without wanting to come over all Michael Winner - ‘calm down dear’ - this ain’t going to happen.
OfCOM’s charter specifically makes no mention of the internet or online or any other reference to interactive media. This is because the government is quite happy to let the internet community regulate itself rather than get involved in a legal minefield of which it would not be able to extricate itself – think EU and global regulations, enforcement, cross border disputes etc and you get the picture.
The internet cannot be regulated, that is one of its main pillars.
All Flint’s statement did was get her name in the paper and made it look like she was being ‘tough on fatties, tough on the causes of fatties’ without really doing anything more than blowing hot air.
Statements by people like Flint make great headlines for the media, but won’t make one bit of difference to the strategies of HFSS brand owners who will be looking to continue or ramp up their online activities.
Pepsi don't market to kids according to their PR - so their website featuring Eva Longoria ads obviously won't appeal to boys under 16 then, or girls for that matter who obviously don't idolise celebrities like Longoria.
Nesquik is of course drunk exclusively by mid-thirties males in upper class restaurants and professional working women, not by kids when they come home from school, which would make more sense for their marketing strategy as the Rabbit character on the front page of their website says 'Come on kids, lets go play in the tree house' before leading them off to play online games based on drink flavours.
OK I am being a bit pedantic, they are not marketing their products, they are websites that carry product info, see the difference?
What will be interesting to see is if there is a groundswell of opinion from online users themselves. The only way that marketing of HFSS foods to kids will not happen online is if enough people don’t want it.
Keep your eye on the blogosphere and remember things like the Kryptonite debacle or other blogging mishaps such as Wal-Mart and its RV trip across the US. If HFSS manufacturers get the blogosphere on their wrong side then they really will have a problem.
Speaking about the new rules for TV advertising, which OfCOM published today she said: “We now look to the Committee of Advertising Practice to put in place similar rules for other media such as cinema, magazines and the internet.
Without wanting to come over all Michael Winner - ‘calm down dear’ - this ain’t going to happen.
OfCOM’s charter specifically makes no mention of the internet or online or any other reference to interactive media. This is because the government is quite happy to let the internet community regulate itself rather than get involved in a legal minefield of which it would not be able to extricate itself – think EU and global regulations, enforcement, cross border disputes etc and you get the picture.
The internet cannot be regulated, that is one of its main pillars.
All Flint’s statement did was get her name in the paper and made it look like she was being ‘tough on fatties, tough on the causes of fatties’ without really doing anything more than blowing hot air.
Statements by people like Flint make great headlines for the media, but won’t make one bit of difference to the strategies of HFSS brand owners who will be looking to continue or ramp up their online activities.
Pepsi don't market to kids according to their PR - so their website featuring Eva Longoria ads obviously won't appeal to boys under 16 then, or girls for that matter who obviously don't idolise celebrities like Longoria.
Nesquik is of course drunk exclusively by mid-thirties males in upper class restaurants and professional working women, not by kids when they come home from school, which would make more sense for their marketing strategy as the Rabbit character on the front page of their website says 'Come on kids, lets go play in the tree house' before leading them off to play online games based on drink flavours.
OK I am being a bit pedantic, they are not marketing their products, they are websites that carry product info, see the difference?
What will be interesting to see is if there is a groundswell of opinion from online users themselves. The only way that marketing of HFSS foods to kids will not happen online is if enough people don’t want it.
Keep your eye on the blogosphere and remember things like the Kryptonite debacle or other blogging mishaps such as Wal-Mart and its RV trip across the US. If HFSS manufacturers get the blogosphere on their wrong side then they really will have a problem.
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