Guest Columnist

With many people still getting to grips with Web 2.0, it seems silly to be talking about Web 3.0, but the phenomenon is real and it`s coming fast. The cynic may point to Web 2.0 and say it`s nothing new and represents nothing more than a natural evolution of technology. Since discussing it in a previous column, I`ve received many requests to elaborate on the theme, particularly with regard to the short-term changes we can expect.

As a starting point, let`s analyse what constitutes Web 2.0. It is probably best described as the abstraction of services, outside the firewall, from platforms and rendering engines. An illustration of this are the many pure play Web 2.0 companies, like dapper.net, datamashups.com, denodo.com, extensio.com, jackbe.com, kapowtech.com, protosw.com, snaplogic.org and teqlo.com.