Web 4.0: What it is and when it's coming

Just been at an interesting conference given by Tom Jenkins of Canadian company Open Text. His company have been around making stuff for the internet for 20 years.

If Web 2.0 is Facebook and Twitter – the read/write web, where people upload content as well as consuming it; and Web 3.0 is the data web – where everything has a digital footprint and presence and where your phone means you take the internet with you wherever you go, and the Internet of Things brings objects from cars to microwaves online; Web 4.0 is a different kettle of fish.

It sounds great though.

Here’s Tom Jenkins’ take on what Web 4.0 will bring:

“It’s immersive and it’s the avatar web. It will be a virtual world..

“If you have kids who game you’ll have seen how intoxicating that virtual reality can be. People in the gaming world start to lose touch with reality. That’s a problem we’re going to have to deal with when we get there…

“The immersive web is a decade away though, and there are some serious bandwidth issues to be addressed before we can have ubiquitous internet like that.”

I. for one, can’t wait.