Web 3.0 AI Agents as Discovery Channels

Yes, I know, Web 3.0 can be used as a sexy term to up one on the folks talking about Web 2.0. And it can be confusing to talk about dynamics and tools as diverse as online technology and individual behavior in such reductive terms that don't really explain outcomes. For those, we are still referring to a human 1.0 ability, which is that to experience in first person. Web 3.0 is a moniker used for the next generation of semantic Web, where intelligence and back end connections make the Web smarter for you.

Maybe Web 3.0 is the Social Graph Tim Bernes-Lee was talking about in the Giant Global Graph?

"It's not the Social Network Sites that are interesting - it is the Social Network itself. The Social Graph. The way I am connected, not the way my Web pages are connected. We can use the word Graph, now, to distinguish from Web. I called this graph the Semantic Web, but maybe it should have been Giant Global Graph!"

Francois Gossieaux, President of Corante, Inc. and publisher of Emergence Marketing shared here that the Web 3.0 will come and it will be much bigger than just having artificial agents...and take much longer. In my mind this depends on availability and adoption.

Stephen Baker at BusinessWeek picked up the thread and added that the best way to use those tools will be to relinquish much of our control. He seems to imply that I intend these Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents to limit our circles of knowledge. Au contraire, I think the opposite will happen -- we will come upon content and people related to what we are seeking in a more deliberate fashion and in much less time. Which in turn has the potential to enrich our knowledge further. Reference library anyone? To further Stephen's excellent use of the word system, I think that the system will be our network, the AI agents the channel. People, process and technology all at your service.

We are in charge -- need to open up the pipe a little? Tweak your parameters, chat with a few people in your network to seek introductions to others, and voila', more or different comes in. Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but am I exaggerating? As I was processing the comments made here about content related to this topic, I thought of a couple of examples of applications.

Mario Vellandi talked about how strong usability coupled with the support of a dedicated brand -- partners, parent company, distributors, fans -- is paramount to differentiation and co-optation. Usability and trusted brands in response to the sheer volume and onslaught of information. In today's parlance we're talking about brand evangelism and word of mouth marketing. Maybe the term marketing will go away, more likely it will be more evident what its original meaning is -- merchant of ideas.

A marketer detects a need, then uses a story embedded with values to sell the idea of goods and services. These values are in fact tags we respond to, except for today all we have to find stories that resonate is serendipity through word of mouth, company-driven marketing efforts, and the capabilities of search engines. Our minds can be wide open, if our attention and time are preoccupied with what is the result of push technology, they will quickly be filled with a lot of stuff, just maybe not the stuff we needed. For that, there is some more marketing that will convince us we actually do need it.

Also check out what Peter Imbres is saying about connection brokers at Point Oh! I'd like to point out that I would have not found both Stephen and Peter's remarks had it not been for tags and links -- I chose the tags, I allowed the trackback. I would have not had the material to further this conversation without the help of ideas from people I follow in my RSS reader, which I select and control.

If I didn't allow comments, I would have missed the excellent remarks by Gavin Heaton on how Web 2.0 has not run its course yet and both its technology and philosophy have the potential to change and shape the world or by John Dodds and Carolyn Ann on the need for data security. Carolyn Ann also added that at-source encryption, taking cyber-crime seriously, and so on are all measures those active in this brave new world should be considering and that the money is in memory, not processors, because it is needed more. I do allow comments, so for today I am in expansive mode.

I will be developing this thread over time seeking opportunities to provide real life examples of applications particularly as they relate to marketing and communications. What are your thoughts?

Comments

[Geoff Livingston]

I like you too much to say anything about the moniker! But I see the larger trend for intelligent use of data. My friend, I have a question: Have you ever read Snow Crash? I think it'll flip you out (in a good way).

[Valeria Maltoni]

It impresses me how on top of your reading you are. Or maybe you saw the link ;-) Maybe at some point we can do a panel conversation on PR implications of intelligent use of data. We could talk about what is possible now and how that can help in building communities and talking to publics are are interested in listening.

[Jarrod]

I think you should definitely check out the book Pyromarketing by Greg Stielstra, if you haven't already. He has a great blog too.

However, I'm still wondering whether this "control" you talk about really isn't a way to isolate ourselves from what we may need to hear, but don't want to. As much as I love blogging and technology, I can stop "listening" to you at any moment, and now awkward face-to-face tension or "break-up." Is this web 3.0 going to produce the right kind of learning for us?

[Carolyn Ann]

I think I'll move to the Inner Hebrides, build an underground home, and concentrate on "Me 1.0". :-) thank you for the quite undeserved mention!

Carolyn Ann

[Carolyn Ann]

Something went wrong with that last post. Here it is, in its entirety! Sorry!

I think I'll move to the Inner Hebrides, build an underground home, and concentrate on "Me 1.0". :-) (Big, cheesy, grin.)

Actually, where I am, now, is pretty remote: 22 miles to the nearest Starbuck's. Thank goodness for Ducati motorcycles. :-)

Seriously: I think we're still figuring out what these tools are, let alone how to use them! AI has been promising nirvana for, what, 40 years? There aren't any decent AI tools out there; most are either proprietary, specialized or both.

Until we get an understanding of the tools, we'll be stuck in a decidedly Incan future: the new wheel (mousetrap, etc) will continually evade us.

I have a feeling that this understanding won't come until the government takes the Internet a heck of a lot more seriously. (As in Clinton/Gore levels of seriousness, not the "oh, isn't that nice" levels we see today.) (Why the government? Because they have requisite number of dollars available.)

What will happen, however, is that the retail market will splinter. The Mom-and-Pop store will become a force of globalization quite unlike the big businesses that dominate the arena, today. Tags will look like scratchings on the surface of rocks in comparison to what could happen!

The only quibble I have with the "semantic web": no one knows what "semantic" means. Sure, they know how to use it, but define it? Not as many as you would think.

And thank you for the quite undeserved mention!

Carolyn Ann

[Mario Vellandi]

If content (and subsequently people) can be better tagged and identified in a semantic web, they can be more easily found.

If that lives across multiple networks amid greater channel noise, better detection tools will have to be developed for finding what we're looking for (if it/they want to be found that is, and assuming appropriate steps have been taken to enhance visibility).

So the tools will have to get better so people don't have to become search experts; but people will be needed to be taught how relevancy parameters for search & retrieve help them get better results. That is a matter of creative comm. design. [Aside: How many people use advanced Google features; even simpler, how many people know to use quotation marks as delimiters?]

Observe how the modern cable tv/dvr box has become easier to use; it still has a way to go...sure. "Find Italian cooking show using chicken, available onDemand now or to be aired soon".

[Carolyn Ann]

Oh my, Mario: surely you don't mean content is the equivalent of people?

Ah: suddenly, I think I understand, although I do hope you'll tell me I'm mistaken! Facebook, My Space, et al: all have people as the content!

In quite a startling manner, I have an understanding of these websites that I never had before. (Thanks, Mario!)

To pick up on a point you make: I don't think people will become, en masse, content-kings (queens, etc), but their AI agents will. And, of course, people being people: some will. Some are good at picking up patterns, seemingly undetectable patterns, and some of them might become brokers in this frightening future.

I can't help but be frightened of a future that has such a profession, as surely it must! What happens to rebellion in such a society? And I don't mean the usual "teenage angst"; I mean very real, alternative ideas? The Timothy Leary's, the Alan Ginsburg's, the Dali's, the Bob Dylan's, the Debbie Harry's and the Sid Vicious's?

Information is the gateway to many things; but, ultimately, society "should" understand what it is undertaking in this Huxley's Pleasure.

Maybe the next "Origin", the next "Stairway to Heaven", the next "Howl", the next "God Save the Queen, the fascist regime" will be a multimedia, rap-oriented, event, replete with light-show and disgruntled old critics (such as myself).

But if we count the people as content, and not what they produce: will we be in a position to decide? For me, the greater part of what we are as a species is the ideas, the writings, the art, the blogs (! :-) ) we produce: not the fact that we're "there" (wherever that may be). Although I must admit to a very strong feeling that I'm missing something *really* important.

I'm meandering on Valeria's blog. (But isn't that part of conversation? Personally, I really like it when someone says "you're wrong, and here's why"!)

Thank you for the insight, Mario. :-) Like I always say: you should learn something new, every day. I did, today. :-)

Carolyn Ann

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Jarrod -- I'm still not sure why greater choice we can manage with better tools is a problem. Funny how nobody has come in and talked about how that would be good v. control by entities. Choice is good in my book.

@Carolyn Ann -- underground was never a good place for me. I think it's the molds I have allergies. Today we praise and encourage the efforts of small businesses that use the tools at hand to grow. As I said in my post maybe I am oversimplifying and I'm sure that without the requisite funds this is far and away. Nonetheless, what we have today is not sustainable. I find myself tuning out more frequently and I am a curios learner! I think the term "control" freaks people out. All it means is more deliberate choice.

@Mario -- no question about it, people have an even greater role. And yes, design is very important in all this. I gave up on TV a long time ago. Now I watch videos on my computer ;-) It's good to have the conversation and think of possibilities.

[Susan Cellura]

Maybe I am missing something, but it sounds to me that we'll be reaching back to the tried and true method of networking, building relationships, etc., but in a manner where we manipulate the tools more effectively versus allowing the tools to manipulate us. By that I mean, right now I think many of us who are new to Web 2.0 are trying to catch up and thus jump on bandwagons. Of course, some people who have been around Web 2.0 for much longer also seem to jump on and off bandwagons.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Susan,

In very practical terms, I think we as humans are constantly trying to make sense of the world we live in. Part of that is how we make commerce -- both of ideas to sustain our spirit and mind, and tools/things to sustain our bellies so to speak.

Your observation reminds me of a philosophy discussion I had on Giambattista Vico and the cycles in history. As well, we go back to tried methods after the new shiny toys don't work or are too much work ;-)