The NY Times had a nice article in last Sunday’s edition—on the front page above the fold—on the concept of Web 3.0, which may have implications for our field.

To give you a sense of what Web 3.0 is, here are some quotes from the article:

• "[The Web 3.0] goal is to add a layer of meaning on top of the existing Web that would make it less of a catalog and more of a guide — and even provide the foundation for systems that can reason in a human fashion."
• "But in the future, more powerful systems could act as personal advisers in areas as diverse as financial planning, with an intelligent system mapping out a retirement plan for a couple, for instance, or educational consulting, with the Web helping a high school student identify the right college."
• "[The holy-grail of Web 3.0 developers] is to build a system that can give a reasonable and complete response to a simple question like: ‘I’m looking for a warm place to vacation and I have a budget of $3,000. Oh, and I have an 11-year-old child.’"

The goal then is to be able to analyze the information from the web and come up with quick and meaningful responses to queries people ask.

Hmmm. That’s sort of a learning application in a way.

And, if we can create such systems, why couldn’t we ask a query like, "I want to become a CLO at a socially responsible company, and I’m currently an instructional designer with an undergraduate degree in humanties and an MBA, plus 5 years experience as a leadership trainer. What do I have to do reach my goal and what do I have to learn?"

What would Web 3.0 mean for our field?