Data is nothing new, nor is scalable storage, but it seems recently we’re taking new approaches to massive amounts of data that we are producing on a daily basis.  In the past, the focus was on actually storing it, but now, with the advent of cheeper storage, we’re actually taking a look at structuring the data so it’s actually usable.  I am reminded of some interesting articles this week as I read Fred Wilson‘s latest declaration of “Email Bankruptcy”.  particularly in the video below explains, that we’re literally beyond labels in email, we need labels for labels and a new semantic way of categorizing our own data.

The Economist has some great information in the February 25th article ”Data, data everywhere” on the EXABYTES of data we are dealing with daily.  Let’s focus on just the web for a moment.  ”By 2013 the amount of traffic flowing over the internet annually will reach 667 exabytes, according to Cisco”.  So how do we turn this massive amount of open data created daily into inter-connected data that makes it usable and applicable to our lives and businesses.  The Semantic Web.

So what does that mean for us as users and consumers and business analysts?  Platforms and interconnected data.  No longer will islands exist in the cloud, data must be portable and standard.  Thats nothing new though, XML, feeds and the portability of data have been around for ever.  What hasn’t is the standards and platforms for categorizing and connecting disparate data sources to make them semantically relevant to individuals. Taxonomies and Ontologies to share our data and categorize our products, pages, photos and tweets.  It is these platforms that will spur the interconnected web, the semantic web, open the way the features, pages, and individuals of the web work together in the future.  Take a look at the video and let it marinate.

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

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Cloud · Data · Fred Wilson · Semantic Web · Web 3.0