Stuart Campbell is Director of Software Development for SyberWorks, Inc., a privately held supplier of e-Learning software and training. A native of the United Kingdom, he had previously served as a Principle Software Engineer, Senior Consultant, Senior Software Engineer, and Development Specialist for companies such as Brooks Automation Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.); Digital Equipment (South Queensferry, U.K.); and Honeywell Control Systems (Motherwell, U.K.). Among his many roles at SyberWorks, he leads the software-development process and helps to build new software releases and update kits.
Sometime…oh, around 2004…you probably started hearing buzz about “Web 2.0…The next generation of the Internet.” The term was coined by O'Reilly Media. And though everyone you ask gives you a different definition of the way Web 2.0 should look and feel, perhaps the best definition can be found in the company’s own archives, here: O'Reilly Publishing's Original Web 2.0 Description.
And O’Reilly continues to call Web 2.0 a “transformative force.” But have you felt it yet? You may just have.
O’Reilly’s early definition differentiated Web 2.0 from Web 1.0 (the old “cloud”) in that:
- Private content?management systems would be replaced by editable public Wikis.
- Personal web sites would give way to dynamic communal blogs.
- Publishing would take a back seat to participation.
- Web content would become more configurable.
- New services would make it easier for people to connect interactively.
- Financial speculation on domain names (to lock down good URLs) would become less prevalent than search?engine optimization (to help people find sites and content regardless of its URL).
Companies even advertised that their products and services were “Web 2.0?ready,” subtly implying that Web 2.0 was some sort of official specification, which it wasn’t. Some even speculated that the Web 2.0 Internet would become a 3D virtual world like Second Life (SL). And the fact that IBM and Microsoft were big SL backers did blow some wind into that sail.
In reality, O’Reilly’s Web?2.0 description has been materializing all around us, unnoticed by most for what it was. The above bullets sound mighty familiar, don’t they? Wikis and blogs are everywhere now. We increasingly friend and track each other in sites like FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And through them, our small, personal, “e?Villages” are merging into global meshes.
Most of us in the e?Learning world live and work online, like tropical fish in an aquarium. And the water in which we’ve been swimming all along has picked up Web 2.0 colors even as we breathe it in.
And Now Comes “Web 3.0”
Many people are now describing the “next” Web 3.0 Internet as a “personal assistant” that:
- Learns our habits and interests by watching past activities, and automatically focuses information delivered to us. (Can you say “Cookies”?)
- Maintains web?based personal browsing histories, which any site can access for customizing what individuals see.
- Allows different sites and services to be combined (just as Google Maps, MapQuest, and site?visitation counters are added to many Web sites today).
- Uses the Internet itself as an operating system (a?la “Cloud” applications that run directly across the web, rather than being installed on our PCs). This too is happening already.
- Replaces keyword searches with intelligent content sifting and delivery, based on interpreting the context of conversationally typed requests. For example, you’ll be able to type “Where’s the nearest store that still has a paperback copy of Dan Brown’s latest book...for under $10?”…and get a concise answer. (By “Web 4.0,” some say, this will give way to full artificially?intelligent interfaces.)
And once again, Second Life is being held out as a possible model for the look and feel of this “next” Internet (which is also being called “Web 3D”). I won’t hold my breath on that, though! If I go to IBM’s, Microsoft’s, and Amazon’s web sites (all long?time SL partners), their Web interfaces are still glaringly 2D. I can’t click amazon.com and find myself walking through a 3D virtual store, able to browse shelves, pick up books, scan their pages, carry purchases to a virtual check?out station, and enter payment and shipping data by swiping a secure virtual ID card. Not today, anyway.
But several companies are working on experimental 3D browsers. For more information about that, just Google phrases like “3D browser”, “Google 3D browser”, “Google SketchUp”, Firefox 3D Browser”, and “AT&T 3D browser”. From what I’ve seen, they all look like 2D interfaces with slickly layered 3D effects… not like truly immersive, 3D, information environments.
Some have even claimed that Web 3.0 may need to run on its own separate network and use its own new protocols…implying that it will be easier to build the next Internet from scratch. I personally know how hard it is to release just one new version of a single software product. I know how tough it is to keep it both forward compatible with future plans and backward compatible with existing users. So I don’t for one minute believe that an entirely new Web 3.0 network will one day “replace” our familiar Internet.
More likely, Web 3.0 will sneak up on us bit by bit…in the night…just as Web 2.0 did (and is still doing).
About SyberWorks
SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in the custom e-Learning Solutions and Learning Management System industries for Fortune 1000 corporations, higher education, and other organizations. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market. Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions to create, manage, measure, and improve e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries.
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A
- How Do Virtual Classrooms of Distance Learning Work?
- Birth of Distance Learning in India - BigGyan Cloud eLearning
- The Growth and Future of E-learning
- E-Learning features
- Cms and Lms – a Comparison
- Career Training Through Online Education and E-learning by 2010
- E - Learning Can As Well Be Useful For Expanding Knowledge
- What will you get with Share Point- based LMS?
Examsoon 000-936 Exam Material
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010We are all well aware that a major problem in the IT industry is that there is a lack of quality study materials. Our Exam Preparation Material provides you everything you will need to take a certification examination. Like actual certification exams, our Practice Tests are in multiple-choice Our IBM 000-936 Exam will provide you with exam questions with verified answers that reflect the actual exam. These questions and answers provide you with the experience of taking the actual test.
Exasmoon 000-015 braindumps
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010To make matters easier for the candidates of the exam, IBM 000-015 braindumps are also available on the internet. The very concept of IBM 000-015 dumps is to introduce the candidates with the questions of utmost importance with regard to their IT certification exam. IBM 000-015 braindumps contains only the most expected questions. If you master them thoroughly, your prospects of getting success with maximum marks also become very much possible. Examsoon 000-015 training which enhances your skil
Pass4side 000-356 exam questions
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010Pass4side have designed the 000-356 exam questions in such a way that a candidate can pass this exam easily in his first attempt. Just go to the Pass4side.com and download free 000-356 exam questions. Our highly certified professional staff made the exam preparation guide according to the latest updates.
Pass4side 000-061 Exam Materials
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010This web site is fully equipped with resources and IBM 000-993 exam questions. It also contains IBM 000-993 practice test, test dump, which can help a candidate for test preparation pass an examination. Your training is made a lot easier as you can download 000-993braindump exams and testing engine from the Pass4side site.
Pass4side 000-084 examination
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010All the Pass4side 000-084 examination exam is written by IT professionals who had years of experience on IT certification exams researching, which guaranteed the quality and accuracy of the practice exams.
Pass4side 000-111 exam materials
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010The Pass4side 000-111 study guide is guaranteed to be 100% braindump free. We value the quality of training you receive through the 000-111 study guide and will never support 000-111 braindumps, or any 000-111 brain dump site. 000-111 braindumps sites cannot compare to the understanding, learning and comprehension you will gain from a 000-111 braindumps site, based on facts and case studies, like Pass4side.
Pass4side 000-314 Practice Exams
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010Each 000-314 resource available from Pass4side has been hand crafted by our team of practicing 000-314 IT Professionals. Pass4side.com is certain that your 000-314 Practice Exams, Labs, and 000-314 Study Guides are the highest quality, and customized to make the Pass4side learning experience the best choice you can make in preparing for your 000-314 Certification.
Pass4side 000-973 Braindumps exam
By: Adela1987 | 05/01/2010Pass4side 000-973 is written to coincide with the real test by the experienced IT experts and specialists. With the complete collection of Pass4side Questions and Answers, Pass4side 000-973 is high enough to help the candidates to pass this exam easily without any other study materials and no need to attend the expensive training.
“Distributor-Modeled” Training
By: Stuart Campbell | 26/10/2009 | E-LearningThis article discusses how Distributor-Modeled training can be used to improve your organization’s relationships with distributors by enabling you to provide them with better service, support, and functionality, while decreasing your costs and increasing revenues.
Web 3.0, Schmeb 3.0
By: Stuart Campbell | 08/10/2009 | E-LearningStuart Campbell, Director of Software Development for SyberWorks, Inc discusses the advent of Web 3.0 and the next generation Internet.
SCORM and the Learning Management System
By: Stuart Campbell | 24/09/2009 | E-LearningThe purpose of this article is to look in a little more detail at the communication flow between the LMS and a course that is SCORM v2.1 compliant. The intention is not to review every possible communication but just the main calls. We will look at SCORM in the context of a SCORM course, i.e. a course that has been developed and built to communicate with a Learning Management System using the SCORM standard.
e-Learning in "the Cloud"
By: Stuart Campbell | 08/09/2009 | E-LearningThis article looks at the advantages and disadvantages of "cloud computing."
Best Practices for Building Student-Friendly Courses
By: Stuart Campbell | 03/08/2009 | E-LearningAt SyberWorks, we’ve developed quite a few courses, and seen many more that others have done. And though course development “best practices” should be common sense, they are often violated. So we wanted to offer our own best guidelines for building student-friendly courses.
10 Tips for Capturing e-Learning Audio
By: Stuart Campbell | 07/07/2009 | E-LearningThe goal of this article is to provide you information on how to get the audio in a format suitable for an e-learning course-authoring tool. The article will focus on capturing and editing audio at the basic level and certainly, the 10 tips listed below should help get you moving in the right direction.
Improving On-The-Job Training with LMS and e-Learning Tools
By: Stuart Campbell | 28/05/2009 | E-LearningOn-the-job training (OJT) is common in both large and small organizations. It is usually done informally, with an experienced colleague or mentor overseeing or teaching the trainee. It may take place in a classroom, on the plant floor, or in any other place where work is being performed.