Intro:
When AJAX was being associated with Web 2.0, histiory has it that it gave way to the term Web 3.0. While corporates still grapple about the association of social computing tools of Web 2.0, the movement with 3.0 is more towards the Enterprise of the future Enterprise 2.0. Enterprise 2.0 itself is a term that extends from Web 2.0 that tries to bring together the social compting to a level of Enterprise-wide acceptable way of doing business that could leverage a Busines Process Platform like the direction SAP has chosen to take with ECC6.0 and beyond. And one deals with the market that still tries to articulate the benefits around an SAP Upgrade. These Enterprise 2.0 tools would ultimately use (and create) new horizontal pieces of softwareand is sometimes used to cover the introduction and implementation of social software within the enterprise, and the social and organizational changes related to its use.
Web 2.0 ++ & SAP BPP:
Organizations are working with Application vendors and System Integrators to use these tools around an Enterprise-wide Business Network (a concept close to marketplaces and exchanges a decade ago) to bring about the useage of social software such as RIA (Rich Internet Applications), SaaS (Software as a service), Application as a Service (Idare not put the acronym), (Waap) Web as a Platform or a Business Process Process Platform (BPP) that would take out all the existing functionality from the core Enterprise Core Component (ECC) and place it over the web turning the concept of Semantic Web into a reality. When one would take the semantic Web integrated across a humungous mass of data spread across an enterprise(s) ,one would have the access to seamlessly rich source of business data that could be transformed into information by a set of tools from the Web 3.0 world into relevant business information that would be consuming these enterprise services that would help churn all this data into information and create Rich Internat based business Applications as Composites, with or without a face that could be consumed by a UI of choice, which in turn could be bundled up to form and enhance business processes and be bunched up together to create Enterprise Service Bundles, which could be used by these rich set of Ajax based tools - a turn we see in SAP with its new Netweaver Business client.
Unlike the concept of Web 2.0, which is widely accepted and understood, Web 3.0 is still considered a typographical error. But in order to bring across multiple enterprises seamlessly to create a living, breathing virtual organizam that would grow organically with data, sliced in multiple ways, which includes slicing and bunching of best practices and being made available of Vertical Composite applications, there is the need to have a critical mass of such Organizations, corporations or huge enterprises. Not only is this retricted at a leyer of Enterprise applications alone, the concept of Adaptive enterprises that can be agile to business requirements would have the need seep into hardware and the networking layer as well. That's another reason why, one sees the push coming through from all quarters not just around upgrades, but also, and more importantly, putting together the ESI (Enterprise Services Infrastructure from SAP). Once this is done, the world would need more of Business Process Experts (BPX) and not the nerds doubling up as rocket-scientists.(SDNers). This manifestation of AJAX with social computing and the relevant tools like LinkedIn, diggit, Secon Life, Twitter, Feeds, and many other such tools would see a great amount of proliferation in terms of horizontal tools that enterprises can use to create tools of the future like widgets and intelligent feedreaders.
The Bourne Insanity:
This brings about the need of an Architectural framework like EAS coming together, along with the useage of Business Process Platform, the coming together of various Business Partners and stakeholders to bring about a bunch of enterprise services based on platform that would have the power to change the existing world wide web to Semantic web. In order to bring about the fuzziness of the roles within an enterprise, which would be more driven by Enterprise Architects, one needs a rich set of tools that would help the weaving of all these services over a semantic web, knitted together using the Composition Environment to create adaptive business applications. And I guess that's why the term "NetWeaver" was coined. And no, the guys were not on dope when they thought about "Netweaver". These intelligent pieces of software that would comprise Web 3.0 technologies will use semantic data, probably rendered by the SAP BPP as the motherboard of all the linked up business processes based on UML, would blur the differences between small, medium and large enterprises for the creation of a comprehensive collaborative platform spread across geographical boundaries doing business on a remote island of second life. Startups and mash-ups will rule the roost and probably, we all will be able to conduct creative and profitable businesses over semantic webs, while holding on to well paying jobs at the same time. If this isn't Innovation with a stable core, what would be? If Web 1.0 was a black and white movie, Web 3.0 would be the "Bourne Insanity".
WWW as Semantic Web:
With BPP, SAP is trying to convert the web into a database of best practices driven as services that can be consumed with tools that would help the information worker like never before. The usage of XML to talk to black boxes with APIs and newer technology areas like SPARQL will help bring all this together. Enterprise Search becomes key. Include Google's direction that could query up videos, podcasts, vbolgs etc. based on semantic search would make SAP battle the behemoth - Google. So, one would guess that in the not so distant future, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM - all put together would be battling Google's inventive and innovative mind. Converting unstructured data into structured content format would bring about the need for newer formats like OWL (Web Ontology Language) and RDF (Resource Description Framework) . And where does ABAP figure in all this? No doubt, SAP is left with no choice but to kill ABAP and create the largest Java Application in the whole world. And so, shouldn't an Organization's focus be on Java instead of ABAP? Also, killing customization with service-oriented abstraction down the line.
Semantic Web + SOA = Artificial Intelligence
With Web 3.0, the BPX would be working with Intelligent systems that would tell her how, when, where and the best way to perform a specific set of functions in the most optimal manner that would lead to the highest chances of success. The start of the evolution can be seen with del.icio.us, Digg, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and others. So, its all about interactivity of a person that would be heightened with the machine to bring about maximum efficiency with greater predictability for success. If such pieces of software would mature to a level that could enhance the application's functionality in terms of reasoning based on multi-faceted constraint-driven data - guess it would make us all rely much more on systems to bring about true collaborative business bringing about seamless information, knowledge and data exchange weaved together on the net in a truly interoperable mode driven by Codd's rules, UML etc.
Second Life * Semantic Web with SAP BPP = Dream
Semantic web with Web 2.0 is more a near term reality that would bring together collaboration groups, design principles and limitless ideas. The point is about applying these concepts as an Enterprise Architect laying down an ESOA roadmap for the next five years. In fact, its about laying down a SOA roadmap in a multi-platform environment and tying up the idea with semantic web. Expanding this concept of doing business on an Island in Second Life to collaborate 24/7 in a seamless "extraprise" would be Utopia with ESOA. Not that this is not so here and now, the wave with FaceBook totally goes against the very fundamentals of classical Web 1.0 as read-only html templates moving to a era of making it possible of doing business in a "wiki-mode" across distributed enterprises on an intelligent web to create "mash-up" corporations that would ultimately rule the roost with Web 3.0.
Outro:
The power of ESOA extends till the limit of our imagination. Brilliant minds across the globe -would continue to take this concept from a dream to a reality. The stretch of imagination is all that it would take. Just as my limited patience when it comes to typing furiously @ the speed of thought.
