We have looked over Web2.0, a big step in Internet functionality, but Web3.0 may be the next significant advance in the reasonably near future.

The 20-year anniversary of the World Wide Web was celebrated at a gathering in Geneva recently on the 14th of March. Tim Berners-Lee, acclaimed inventor of the Internet, attended this celebration and delivered his next proposition for a further advance in Internet functionality.

His idea is not farfetched; he is moreso publicizing the concept rather than inventing it. The concept is to advance the Internet into a web of data. The combination and correlation of raw data would aid scientific research and development.

A widespread effort to materialize this concept has been taken on by a group of European computer scientists through DBPedia. This system obtains key information from the popular site, Wikipedia, and retains the information in a database. e.g. Historical figures' dates of birth/death, hometowns, heights, etc. An obvious Social & Ethical Issue arises from this idea. How can one authenticate the data derived from a publicly edited domain like Wikipedia? Automatic testing methods to validate and verify derived information have been looked into to ensure the authenticity of these databases, but problems can be expected to follow alike Web3.0's predecessors.

Source: http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/medien/das_grosse_aufraeumen_im_hypertext-haufen_1.2216427.html

"An impressive example of the possibilities of
Linked Data is the DBpedia, a project that has been prominent in
Geneva was presented. It is used by researchers at the Free University
of Berlin and Leipzig University forward. DBpedia ² began with
structured information from Wikipedia and to extract the query
language Sparql accessible. With special Linked Data browsers display
the data of Wikipedia in a completely new way to use issues such as
the following can be entered with only one answer: How many writers
were after 1900 and before 1933 born in Berlin? Which German
composer of the 19th Century are also in the English edition of
Wikipedia treated? What are the ten largest European capitals? "

dbpediaarticle.pdf