The Web4 Invention Framework

Web⁴ is an example of a powerful, generative Invention Framework that can be applied to your business to reveal near-term product openings, strategic intellectual property, and the threats and opportunities of disruptive innovation.

credit: victoriapeckham

A series of fundamentally disruptive technologies are transforming our lives. Data, especially data about people, is the driver of value in our emerging information economy. New technologies are radically increasing the availability and value of data about people, things, places, times, events, interests, and activities not only on the Web, but also in the physical world. Simply put, our lives are being changed by, and businesses will be created to capture, understand, share, use, manage, and monetize data about:

Who we are and who we know

What we attend to, interact with, and are interested in

Where we are, have been, and plan to go

When we do these things

The key in Web⁴ is that by transforming the nature and power of information, it will change our lives and our world. In Web⁴, information, rather than being abstract bits in computer memory, or even pages on the Web, becomes newly meaningful and transformative by being understood as originating from and being connected to real  people situated in the real world increasingly in real time and at global scale.  We are creating a new nervous system for humanity and for the planet.  By connecting people, the Web, and the world, we transform what we can become and the problems we can solve.

Web4 Technologies

The key technologies bringing about this Web⁴ transformation are:

Mobile

Connects people to each other, content, and the world for 4 billion people globally everyday

Sensors

Gathers data about where people are, what they are doing and interested in, and when they do it, as well as data about other devices and the world around us

Social Graph

Who people are and who they know, interact with, and communicate with represented in a way that new services can be created with this information

Rich Media

Photo, video, and audio creation, annotation, sharing, remix, management, and display which give us and our devices new eyes and ears to capture, understand, and transform the world

Real Time

The ability to do all of the above in real time and connected to the real times and patterns of activity in the world

Data Management and Analytics

Storing, protecting, and sharing data, understanding what data means, how it can be used, discovering correlations, patterns, and deriving and predicting new data

Web4 Opportunities

Over the next decade, Web⁴ technologies and related social, economic, and cultural shifts will transform the daily lives of billions of people around the world changing how we communicate, socialize, advertise, play, learn, do business, and manage our personal information:

Communications

Using Web⁴ technologies to communicate with and about people, the Web, and the physical world in new ways leveraging mobile devices, sensors and context-awareness, the social graph, rich media, real-time, data management and analytics, and the ability to communicate at different scales (personal, social, global) than were possible before

Advertising

Connecting brands, advocates, and prospects in new forms that support consumer engagement and word of mouth

Using mobile devices and sensors to connect consumers to the world around them, each other, and to brands

More intimately integrating brands and rich media in the content people consume, produce, and share

Gaming

Using social communications to enable new types of play and games with and about our friends, family, and coworkers

Using mobile devices and sensors to play in the world

Using game dynamics to affect human participation and collaboration in traditionally non-gaming tasks

Content

The global spread of cameraphones with sensors and high resolution cameras and microphones, along with the networks, software, and services to support media (especially video) sharing upstream and downstream will transform how we inform each other about our lives and the world

The byproduct of the growth of context-aware cameraphones is that rich media will increasingly include metadata about its origin, content, and use that will enable new applications to support search, summarization, highlighting, remix, and monetization of media content

Education

As the world requires a more educated and adaptable workforce, the technologies and methods of 20^th century “education” will be supplanted by lifelong long and daily learning on demand with other people and in the world

Commerce

Web⁴ technologies will change how people and companies create, buy, and sell physical and virtual goods and services

Personal Data

In the increasingly connected world in which user data drives value creation for businesses and with growing regulatory pressure around personal data privacy, retention, and use, new technologies, legal structures, and services will be created to enable people to control and benefit from the data they create

Web4 and Invention Arts

Marc Davis has spoken publically about these developments since 2004 beginning with his talk on “Mobile Media Metadata: The Future of Mobile Imaging” at the Stanford University Seminar on People, Computers, and Design and subsequently at many international conferences including his talk on “Understanding Mobile: From Web 2.0 to World 2.0” at Web 2.0 Expo 2008 and his talk available on video from the Centre Pompidou’s New Industrial World Forum on Social Networks: Cultures, Politics, and Engineering. Others are thinking about ideas related to Web⁴ such as the “Web Squared” Manifesto from Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle and Bruce Sterling’s ideas about “spimes”, but the key to capitalizing on Web⁴ is to combine understanding the Web⁴ future with the ability to invent the technologies, applications, and businesses that will define it.

Invention Arts is uniquely able to combine the insight, product innovation, and strategic intellectual property development that will help businesses win in the Web⁴ world.