Cross-posted at Bryan Barash's blog.
Web 3.0 is a term often thrown around these days, yet I see little evidence that there's been any major leap to warrant its use. That is, until now, considering what I've been hearing about Wolfram Alpha.
The UK's Independent has a nice writeup on Wolfram Alpha, giving us an insight into how this next generation search engine (knowledge engine?) will change the way we think about the internet.
This new tool could provide countless opportunities to open up government and create much easier access to all sorts of political and governmental information. An explanation of the platform and how it relates to politics, below the flip.
To put it simply, Wolfra Alpha will answer whatever question you ask it in an intelligent and useful way. It will also provide related data. For example, if you searched for the name 'bob', it would tell you that Bob is a common male name, followed by data on numbers of people named Bob, and a chart plotting the use of the name Bob over time.
On the other hand you can ask it much more complex questions, for example, the Independent mentions that you can ask it what the weather was like on the day John Kennedy died, and it can cross-reference the data and provide a relavent answer. It's also very good at complex mathematical computations.
Not only is this being heralded as a giant leap for web technology, it's being discussed in a broader sense as a tool that will revolutionize the way we think about the internet, in that it's the next step towards a well organised convergence of everything that can be found on the web.
A thought on politics: If this is indexed to work with public campaign and political data, will this become an incredibly powerful tool for calculating in a flash everything from politicians' donations from certain lobbies to how a politician votes on certain issues over time? Just think of the possibilities a tool like this can provide towards a more open government.
I'll be writing more on this after it's official public release next month, but will leave you with this video explanation and set of screenshots to whet your pallet until we get to play with the real thing.