1. Smart Web

Back to Ten Trends 2011

As the WWW grows and develops, there is an increasing sophistication in terms of the applications being used, and in terms of the level of “intelligence” that exists in the web itself. A growing trend will see more applications and services that are capable of acting without human intervention, with decisions being made on the basis of data usage patterns etc.

Three key areas worth watching as an example of this:

• Internet of things – understanding the web as a network, not simply of people, but of devices—“things”, or the networked interconnection of everyday objects. These are able to interact, follow instructions, and carry out tasks independently of people controlling them. In 2011–12 it is predicted there will be more ‘things’ connected to the internet than people. Microchipped pets, trackable consumer products, biometric passports, and geolocation tools all point to a world where real and virtual are already intricately intertwined.
  • Cynthia Breazeal: The rise of personal robots
  • Robots to get their own internet
  • Wikipedia definition of the Internet of Things
  • ReadWriteWebs's short video explaining the Internet of Things
  • Free downloadable report describing the potential impact of the Internet of Things in the business realm
• Adaptive web - lets you automatically adapt your digital interactions to serve up the content that each customer needs at any given moment. The Adaptive Web is immediate and crowd-driven. Traditional web optimisation is retroactive and rule-driven. Adaptive Web technology determines user intent, then adapts in real-time – based on the engagement patterns of like-minded peers.
• Ref: http://www.baynote.com/adaptive-web-vision/
• Learning analytics - Learning analytics promises to harness the power of advances in data mining, interpretation, and modelling to improve understandings of teaching and learning, and to tailor education to individual students more effectively.
  • E.g. Ball State University: Visualizing Collaborative Knowledge Work

Derek Wenmoth speaks about the Smart Web

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