We need the 3 way web. The 3 way web = 1 way web + 2 way web + more layering.
The 1 way web is publishing documents for people to read. We have been able
do this from the very start using bone knives and bear skins. With any
editor anyone could write a page in simple html and publish it on a web site.
Early forms of aggregation evolved so you could subscribe to certain pages for
notifications of when they changed.
Weblogging = 1 way web + layering.
Layering adds abstraction. It ties things together in a prettier more functional
package. More powerfully layering can relate what wasn't related which turns it
into a new thing altogether. And so the building aspires ever higher on ever renewed
foundations. Radio Userland, for example, adds all of the above.
Publishing is valuable but as a readers we crave the ability to reply.
Which leads to the 2 way web.
2 way web = the 1 way web + reader interaction.
Email, comments, IM, searching, and discussion groups are all mechanisms for
adding user interaction and feedback. Currently all of these form, programatically
at least, an unrelated mix and have not yet gelled into a layer. Google may
index weblogs, but it won't pick up the rest of the threads related to the weblog.
The connections are lost. Indeed, a weblog may also be the result of a stimulus
from other threads and may cause the stimulas of yet other changes.
The interaction mechanisms plus weblogs are implementable and representable
on one substrate uniting them into a layer. This will happen someday.
As fine a day as that will be, we still need more.
3 way web = 1 way web + 2 way web + more layering.
Consolidating interaction services into a layer is the start
of the 3 way web and a requirement for the next phase of the 3 way web.
We need to go beyond interaction by mastering the transformation, packaging,
combining, and accessing of linked data streams. It goes without
saying web services would be the implementation platform.
Some examples of things you can't easily do today but would be able to
do in the 3 way web...
Threads between all data streams is the ultimate feature of the 3 way web.
Weblogs comment on other weblogs which spills out to discussion groups,
IM, email, etc, and the back again. The thread between all these
sources along with its progression over time is precious information
and supports amazing capabilities.
A simple start is the generalization of the calendar metaphor used by weblogs.
A calendar is one potential packaging of weblog input. It is appropriate for
a diary but is not appropriate or sufficient in other domains. A weblog for
a lab machine, for example, would need a calendar and a log type view. Just use
a really large number of entries that stay on the page? You can do that it,
but it's not the same.
If all team members record their status in a weblog, for example, a rollup of
the status needs to happen for presentation to higher levels of managements/weblogs.
This rollup requires a transformation ability over a set of data streams, which
bumps into the semantic web. The transformation may require either a human
or programatic mediator. Links to the project planning tool and time tracking
tool could also be integrated.
The log for all lab machines would need a similar rollup. At any point in time
a discussion of the recent machine changes could be spawned. Either a yahoo type group
or comment system would work, but the information should stay related to and
accessible as a whole.
Combining status information is just one example out of many requiring a meta level
capability to unite multiple data sources into a different form that can in turn
serve as a data source for yet more transformations.
It would be kind of cool.
Now for the 4 way web...
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9:51:31 AM 
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