The Web 3.0 Platform. What does it need?

In 2009 at the inaugural DrupalCamp Atlanta that I helped organize, I presented this paper based on some research on the social media software space and how Drupal fits. Since as a business professor I have access to Gartner and Forrester as well as a variety of other marketing research resources, I used those.  I also surveyed former clients and students now using social media. Since I have been installing and using such softwares for 15 years, I have a history of working with SharePoint, Documentum, LotusNotes, WordPress, Joomla, MicroStrategy, Drupal, Moodle, E107, and several others. I attempted to be objective. Here are the results.

First, there are three core capabilities I think social software really needs.  After I go through these and present charts of my findings, I will present three charts comparing several solutions at the bundle level for blog publishing, social media, and content management.

• Multi-tool community: This is a community of users and developers creating the novel features and sharing them with each other. Social software must constantly evolve or it will die. Check out MySpace for an illustration.
• Code Execution Engine: Social software must provide insights related to social relationships and posted information to its users. This is what generates the value in usage. Thus, the ability to easily access capabilities in the system and hook into the events that occur matters greatly in evolving a community platform over time.
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  • Semantic Data Engine: Web 3.0 is not here yet, but social software is pushing in the direction of semantic data and contextualization of user experiences. There will come a time when data filtering will solve the tradeoff problem of information overload versus homogeneous sourcing. To do so, we will need access to data on who reads what and be able to relate that to others in their network. Other sources of data will need to be merged into the systems and related.
  

Above, I listed core capabilities unique to social software that i believe critical and provided some ratings. The ratings are somewhat subjective. Where I ran low on data, I used my judgement. Below, I am presenting a dimensionalized analysis of several different tools as feature bundles.  Note that to achieve the bundling, substantial configuration is often necessary.

Conclusion

I look forward to Drupal 7. The data handling alone will finally be on par with SharePoint and in some ways better. The field handlng and profile integration will be excellent. There will still be great need for better identity handling, but that too is getting better (see Bakery project).