I got up with this question asked by Maria in my mailbox, here are my thoughts:
Hopefully, a web by the people for the people: everyone wishing to have its own video, audio or written media channel will have it. Traditional media will be changed, created by contributions of citizen and journalist content;
Web everywhere: we’ll more and more be using it from home, coffees, using it from our computers, TVs and mobile phones. I’ll be walking on the streets, from anywhere in the world, having a Skype chat conversation at the same time;
A hub for creative people: as it started with Web 2.0, the web will continue to be used by curious and creatives to meet, share, exchange thoughts, ideas, and make the web and the world better. This movement will grow stronger as people will unite;
Geography disappearing in an immense web of sharing: the Web has made sharing thoughts and knowlegdge with the rest of the world easier than ever, how much of my life got influenced and shaped by meeting people online? How many ideas exchanged, that have evolved in each and everyone’s head, spreading, expanding, e v o l v i n g — changing our lifes? The amount of knowledge that get now shared, ideas that are created, how many lifes are influenced by virtually interacting with each other?
A global phonebook: with everyone having either a blog, or just a ID page where we can get to know about this person (picture, occupation, city of living, hobbies, social groups they belong to, interest, favorites, etc.), the web is becoming the largest phonebook ever. Blogs as we know them now won’t be blogs anymore but virtual id’s – our thoughts-ideas-tastes- virtual memoir, archived as a straight html files – intellectual souls, classified by day/week/month/year/decades – family trees, fully linked network of all our related friends, family, interest and hobbys. From these pages, everyone will be able to get into people’s webspaces, and make the move (or not) that could bring you to interact with each other. From there, many things could happen;
More than ever, a new media: slowly replacing, changing, adding to the TV, Radio and Newspapers, or complementing these. New kind of contents will grow: organic, spontaneous, original, and of course, trash (as in any media) and cooperation between traditional and citizen media;
A powerful showroom and marketplace: for a new generation of entrepreneurs, amateurs, writers, musicians, craft artists using the medium to have their productions seen by like minded people and interested buyers;
Advertising Wallpapers: many are saying the future of advertising is on the web – visual pollution and trashy content are what we’ll be having to deal with. Targeted intelligent advertising will be developed, centered on people’s interest and location;
Niche vs mainstream: I believe some communities will hit mainstream, attracting milions of users (social softwares, games, …), but most of them will be small, intimate communities. We won’t be strangers anymore, we’ll all be invisibly connected together, growing / sharing with each other. The more of yourself you’re gonna put into your community, the more will be given to the community – this entity, ecosystem, it’s gonna grow.
Web 3.0 is about communities, difference, market, online IDs, and the exploding of new media and entertainment format.