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he 6th August 1991 was asignificant day in the history of the internet, being the day

when the World Wide Web becamepublicly available. There was nofanfare. Its creator, the now internationally known Tim Berners-Lee, posted a short summary of hisInformation management: a proposala year earlier <www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html>, giving birth to a new technology that would fundamentally change the world as wewould know it (Figure 1). He tells thestory that this proposal had beenreceived as being vague but exciting(Berners-Lee, 2009), yet this vaguelyexciting idea is now shaping the very scope and nature of our humancommunications and interactions with information on the web.

Early adopters will recall the staticHTML coding that powered thesesimple sites on the web. Now the web is everywhere, on our mobiledevices, in cars, on planes, and evenon our televisions. Communication is the pivotal factor, with flexibilityand speed considered as essentialrequirements in our quest for interaction.

A decade into the 21st century and weare almost enraptured by our contem-porary digital landscape, mapping andexploring various pathways for infor-mation discovery, complaining aboutinformation overload, and adoptingnew forms of information curationto manage our information needs.

So it is important for us to understandhow this information landscape isaffecting how we produce andconsume information in the juggle tosupport our students to become what Michael Wesch (2009) dubbed asknowledge-able.

As we increasingly move toward anenvironment of instant and infiniteinformation, it becomes lessimportant for students to know,memorize, or recall information, andmore important for them to be able

to find, sort, analyze, share, discuss,critique, and create information.

Wesch (2009)

For our students the world of technology acts as a magnifier, and as teachers we can leverage thenetworked information environmentin ways that will help them achievethe knowledge-ability of learning in aWeb 3.0 world.

The web of thingsThe web is around us – literally. WhileAustralia is rolling out the NationalBroadband Network, the world isrolling out the web of things that isformed from the data that we and ourobjects are generating. This new webis replacing the kind of web that is theusual the backbone of our search-and-publish style of information discovery.In this traditional approach, teacherlibrarians choose the best websiteevaluation criteria they can find for

Web 3.0: preparing our students for tomorrow’sworld. Part 2

Judy O’Connell is Lecturer in Library andInformation Management in the Faculty ofEducation at Charles Sturt University,Australia. In this article, Judy continues herfocus on the emergence and expansion of Web3.0, and its implications for the ways in whichstudents will find information.

T

Figure 1 Berners-Lee’s original information management proposal showing linked informationsystems <www.w3. org/History/1989/proposal.html>

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their journey around the web. Theseare epitomised by clear evaluativestrategies about educational, informa-tional and technical issues related toaccuracy, authority, objectivity,currency, coverage.

Yet Web 3.0 transcends thisframework, leaving students andteachers working with a skill-set thatreflects a less dynamic age of theinternet. Today, a new approach tocommunication and informationsharing emerges every time somebodycreates a new web application oranother falls by the wayside.

In Web 3.0, who we are, where we are, and what we do is as relevant aswhat we buy, what we read, what weresearch, and what we learn. There is a direct synergy that traditional webengagement overlooks, and signals the need to sharpen our approach ininformation literacy practices in sucha hyper-connected world.

The social web and informationThe social web not only enhances ouropportunities for social networking,but also makes possible more powerfulsearch, location, recommendation andsimilar services. This might help withyour next outing, book selection, orgift purchase, but, conversely, itshould be ringing alarm bells forinformation professionals when itcomes to search.

Anyone who has an account withAmazon will be familiar with therecommendations that appear onscreen when you log into youraccount, based on your previouspurchase pattern. Anyone who is onFacebook, or has joined Google+ willalso have seen the friend recommenda-tions generated by geographic andsocial connections (Figure 2). In oursocially connected world, it isimportant not to sidestep understand-ing how the social web impacts theinformation seeking and learningneeds of our students.

The ISTE NETS 2007 standards forglobal learning for students include

standards familiar to teacher librariansin relation to research, informationfluency, critical thinking, problemsolving and decision making. Thestandards also embrace creativity,innovation, communication, collabora-tion and technology. Most importantlythe standards incorporate digitalcitizenship, emphasising that studentsneed to:

a) advocate and practice safe, legal,and responsible use of informationtechnology

b) exhibit a positive attitude towardusing technology that supportscollaboration, learning, andproductivity

c) demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning

d) exhibit leadership for digitalcitizenship.

ISTE (2007)

More than just being an acceptable use policy, these elements of digitalcitizenship have to be woven into the very fabric of the social learningexperiences of students.

Understanding the social webinvolves showing students how thesocial web impinges on our communi-cation transactions, and affects ourinformation gathering activities. Thesocial web is affecting not only our

digital footprint and digital identity,but is also very much affecting ourinformation transactions.

In 2007, Google changed the default on one important aspect of its searchservice: automatic customisation ofsearch results. This customisation nowmeans that Google is delivering moreresults that fit your know locality,interests, and points of view, filteringinformation even before you have seen it (Vaidhayanthan, 2011). Mostteachers and students do not realisethat by being connected to Googlethrough any one of its services, such as Google Reader, Gmail, or Google+,filtering is automatically happening.Just log out of all Google products onyour computer, and run the samesearch through Google and see whathappens. For another angle on thesocialisation of information, revisitGoogle Scholar, and consider the impli-cations around the citation counts thatGoogle Scholar provides. What doesthis imply for peer review and scholarlyaggregation of knowledge? After all,citation counts do not actually indicateimportance. Do your students under-stand this? A high number of citationscould indicate that an article may befoundational or, alternatively, that it issuspect and open to question.(Vaidhayanthan, 2011 p. 193).

We have all become quite accustomedto Google’s quick and certain retrieval ofinformation, with search options thatseem to make us experts in receivinganswers that seem suitable to our infor-mation need. Yet a searcher may notalways be aware of what they arelooking for, and an information querymay seem to be resolved when itshould have been expanded. A largepart of what we do as informationprofessionals is to ensure this does nothappen. The internet has become partof our knowledge manipulation toolkit,as we facilitate discovery and interac-tion with information for learning.

Learning in the social web era isparticipatory, and involves communalapproaches for distinguishing goodknowledge sources from those that are

Figure 2 Photo by Limbic used underCreative Commons <www.flickr.com/photos/8230954@N04/3236511064/>

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questionable, using the web to shareideas, comment on one another’sprojects, and plan, design, implement,advance, or simply discuss practices,goals, and ideas together (Davidson &

Goldberg, 2009). The firm establishment of the social web andparticipatory learning means thatteacher librarians need to becomemore deeply immersed in social

networking, as well as leveraginginformation architecture, interoper-ability, and strategies for finding information by utilising as wide avariety of social connections andsearch tools as possible to meet theinformation seeking training needs of their students (Figure 3).

Teacher librarians should make thesocial web a centre-piece aroundwhich information seekers engage inconversation about a topic. Socialnetworking around skilled research isWeb 3.0 at its best.

Explore Knowledge 2.0 <bit.ly/knowledge2> and learn more aboutsearch skills and social web optionsfor knowledge enquiry (Figure 4).Stay up-to-date with All-in-one list ofsearch engines <www.pandia.com/powersearch/> which is always keptcurrent, and Search engines and searchtools for kids and teenagers <www.pandia.com/kids/index.html>. Keep in touch with search

Figure 3 Digital information fluency model <21cif.com/resources/difcore/difv2%20-%20Engage%20output/engage.html>

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developments and search engineoptimisation (strategies that affect theranking of search results) from theSearch engine detective <www.pandia.com/searchworld/detective.html> andSearch engine land <searchengineland.com/>.

The semantic webSearch engines are unable to index thevast world of high-quality content onthe web, as much of it is hidden fromthe search bots that rove across theinternet. One of the issues has beenthe dependence on keyword searches,based on chosen fields and/ormetadata within a website. Now thesemantic web is starting to connectdata and information more closely,facilitating context based search and research.

The video created by Kate Ray on Web3.0 reminds us that the core problem isour ability to create information has farexceeded our ability to manage it<www.vimeo.com/11529540>. In thisvideo we are taken on a journeythrough data, media, news, socialnetworking, searching, informationfiltering, indexing, artificial intelli-gence, and the context and debatearound the semantic web.

While Google algorithms are busyfinding information and organising the Web, the semantic web promisesflexibility unheard of in the history of information organisation. The bigtheme of the semantic web is to makethe web more understandable tosoftware, whereas Web 2.0 has been

about making the Web understandableto people.

The semantic web is an infrastructuretechnology built on data and metadata– a principle that librarians are alreadyfamiliar with. Cataloguing has been allabout getting control over content andmaking sure that the library cataloguefacilitates discovery, management,identification and access to the libraryresources. But the semantic web futurebrings us a whole new dimension toour information organisation andaccess activities.

Coyle (2010) explains that the movetoward an open declaration of vocabularies, and the freeing of datafrom databases and from records, iskey to expanding the discovery andnavigation services that we canprovide to information seekers. Just as well!

While we make the shift in ourlibraries to new ways of managing themetadata in our school librarycatalogue with the move to RDA, takepause and think about the informationdeluge upon us, and appreciate thepower behind the semantic web,which is giving meaning to a world ofnetworked data. With the semanticweb, quick, brown and fox are nolonger strings of numbers to bemanually combined, but are wordsthat are formally represented concepts

with defined relationships to otherconcepts. The ontologies that definethese concepts establish meaning thatcan be understood by our searchengines. They will also allow newinterfaces, such as augmented realityapplications, to combine with localand social web information to provideparallel cognitive enhancement in ourinformation interactions (Yonk, 2011).The power in emerging technologies,from simple tools like QR codes tovirtual and augmented reality tools, isultimately being scaled by these.

So thanks to the artificial intelligenceof linked data <linkeddata.org/> that is powering global data, webinformation can be aggregated andanalysed to further refine andrepresent new information and newdata. The LOD diagram (Figure 5)provides a snapshot of the 203 datasets which consist of over 25 billionRDF triples, which are interlinked byaround 395 million RDF links(September 2010).

Back in 2006, Hans Rosling showedhow the semantic web and linked data can be used in extraordinaryways. He took complex global trendsand packaged them into lively animations, making decades of datapop <www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html>.

Figure 4 Knowledge 2.0 QR code<bit.ly/knowledge2.qrcode>

Figure 5 A section of the Linking Open Data (LOD) cloud diagram <richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/>

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Since then, linked data has progressedworldwide. For example, MashupAustralia <mashupaustralia.org/data-sources/> explains that Australiangovernment re-usable public datasetsare available. There are now a growingnumber of these mashup initiativescreating new services, often withsimple tools, and waiting for theenergy and ingenuity of people andcommunities keen to solve a problemor create an opportunity.

Perhaps what we are seeing is theemergence of the web as a kind ofcontent management system with dataable to be repurposed from differentsites, and published to new places andsites for further distribution.

Semantic searchSemantic search engines are continu-ing to evolve, and provide someinsight into where future search willgo. Built on the interactive power ofWeb 3.0, semantic search engines are

emerging that perform an analysis ofcontent in the search process. Thesesearch engines try to augment generalsearches as well as provide systemsthat are literally changing the searchexperience. Rather than simply identifying a useful page, thesesystems try to:

• pull the information from thosepages that might be what a user islooking for and to make thisimmediately apparent

• supply specific sources for asser-tions in the content beingprovided

• help users identify further searches

• find matches between people andtheir needs

• provide affective aspects of thesearch query from the social web(Hendler, 2010).

The variety of semantic search optionsbeing developed is as diverse as thedata that they are mining (Table 1).

Implications for informationprofessionalsEducators need to be sure to includenot just new search tools and strate-gies in the digital toolkit being intro-duced to students, but also be ready tobuild robust alternative searchprocesses right into the core curricu-lum engagement processes whereverpossible. The social dimensions ofWeb 3.0 and the semantic dimensionof Web 3.0 provide a pivotal point inour engagement with global contentand knowledge repositories.

Searching will continue to become aneven stronger part of thinking andsocial networking, and our libraries asinformation spaces will need, moreand more, to become knowledgespaces rather than spaces that arecustodians of an inventoried collec-tion. These information spaces shouldfacilitate navigation to data anywhere,through linked-data initiatives, and be

Kngine <www.kngine.com/> tries to understand the documents andthe search queries in order to provide customised meaningful searchresult, and now also includes Kngine stats <www.kngine.com/Stats/>and Kngine explorer <www.kngine.com/Explorer.ashx>.

WolframAlpha <www.wolframalpha.com> provides dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms,and methods. This search engine also provides the option tointeract with your results using sliders and controls, to rotate andzoom 3D graphics and visualisations, and to manipulate resultsdirectly in your browser.

Tip top <feeltiptop.com/> allows a user to explore a complete newworld of insights and sentiments from around the world, in real time.

Factbites <www.factbites.com/> offers you real, meaningfulsentences that are right on topic.

Table 1 Examples of semantic search options

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ready to re-package data with newconnections in order to provide extraordinary opportunities for information and knowledge growth.

The social web will leverage the inter-connectivity of resources, and facilitateconversation and mashup re-enforcingthe importance of digital citizenship inonline interactions. The Great NZ Mixand Mash competition, from theNational Library Services to Schools,teaches students how to remix withrespect, using Creative Commons, asthe basis for creativity. As explained inthe free educators guide, the internethas dramatically changed quoting andremixing, largely because of the massiveamount of digital content now accessibleanywhere in the world, and the easewith which it can be copied.

Web 3.0 and the semantic web havecreated a centre-piece around whichinformation seekers constantly engagein creative conversation about a topic.Enter the community as collectionmodel, where a school library becomesa practice-based, organic, distributiverepository of conversations and infor-

mation connections to local and web resources related to those conversations of learning.

Lankes, Sliverstein, Nicholson andMarshall (2007) explain that ifknowledge is created through conversa-tions, then libraries are in the businessof conversations. They suggest that thepower of conversation drives engage-ment and information distribution, asin the example of teens who wantlibrarians to blog about book topicsthat interested them. Rather thanlooking at a catalogue, teens wanted tofind what they were looking for in thecontext of a conversation. Now thatour students easily turn to the webwhen posed with a challenge orlearning problem – let us be sure ourschool libraries are central to theirlearning conversation. Web 3.0provides a smarter and more efficientway to foster this kind of conversation.Tools such as Scoop.it! <www.scoop.it/>and Storify <storify.com/> are alreadyenhancing social bookmarking andblogging as personalised informationcollections, such as Digital citizenship in

schools (2011) and Play School turns 45 (2011).

In The atlas of newlLibrarianship, Lankes(2011) asks us to abandon old ways ofthinking and embrace the new world ofopenness, participation, technology andthe promise of the semantic web, andurges us to learn to work with theinternet in new ways as it traverses theseismic shifts of this decade.

Web 3.0 and the semantic web offeran online future with an intelligentweb at its heart, with personalisation,virtual worlds and access everywhere.Our students have been surroundedby ever-evolving digital technologiesand practices that impact on theirdaily existence and the textuallandscapes that they occupy(Carrington, 2005).

Let us ensure that we are encouragingour students to be motivatedsearchers, creators, producers andconsumers in digital, mobile-enabledenvironments. Let us centre ourlearning and teaching on preparingour students for tomorrow’s world. ■

‘All-in-one list of search engines’, Pandia powersearch, P&S Koch, Oslo. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.pandia.com/powersearch/>.Berners-Lee, T. (2009) ‘Tim Berner-Lee on the next Web’, TED Talks, TED Conferences, LLC. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html>.Carrington, V. (2005) ‘New textual landscapes’, in J. Marsh (ed.), Popular culture, new media and digital literacy in early childhood, RoutledgeFalmer, Oxford.Coyle, K. (2010) ‘Library data in the web world’, in ‘RDA vocabularies for a Twenty-First-Century data environment’, Library Technology Reports 46(2), pp. 5–11.Davidson, C.N. & Goldberg, D.T. (2009) The future of learning institutions in a digital age. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Viewed 07 October 2011.

<mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/Future_of_Learning.pdf>.‘Digital citizenship in schools’, (2011) Scoop.it!, Goojet SAS, Labège, France. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.scoop.it/t/digital-citizenship-in-schools>.Free to mix: an educators guide to re-using digital content, (2011) Digital New Zealand and National Library of New Zealand. Viewed 07 October 2011.

<schools.natlib.govt.nz/sites/schools.natlib.govt.nz/files/free-to-mix_v040811_0.pdf>.Hendler, J. (2010) ‘Web 3.0: the dawn of semantic search’, Computing Now, IEE Computer Society, January, pp. 77–80.Infowhelm and information fluency, (2010) 21st Century Fluency Project. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ECAVxbfsfc&feature=player_embedded>.ISTE (2007) Standards: NETS for students 2007, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Washington, DC. Viewed 07 October 2011.

<www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx>.‘Knowledge 2.0’, LiveBinders, Heyjudeonline. Viewed 07 October 2011. <livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=77617>.Lankes, R.D. (2011) The atlas of new librarianship, MIT, Cambridge, MA.Lankes, R.D., Silverstein, J.L., Nicholson, S. & Marshall, T. (2007) ‘Participatory networks: the library as conversation’, Information Research 12(4), pp. 17–33. Viewed 07

October 2011. <informationr.net/ir/12-4/colis05.html>.Mashup Australia, Government 2.0 Taskforce, Parkes, ACT. Viewed 07 October 2011. <mashupaustralia.org/data-sources/>.Pandia: search engine detective, P&S Koch, Oslo. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.pandia.com/searchworld/detective.html>.‘Play School turns 45’, (2011) Storify, ABC News, Viewed 07 October 2011. <storify.com/abcnews/play-school>.Ray, K. (2010) Web 3.0: a doc by Kate Ray, Vimeo, LLC. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.vimeo.com/11529540>.Rosling, H. (2006) ‘Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen’, TED Talks, TED Conferences, LLC. Viewed 07 October 2011.

<www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html>. Search engine land, Third Door Media. Viewed 07 October 2011. <searchengineland.com/>. ‘Search engines and search tools for kids and teenagers’, Pandia: kids and teens, P&S Koch, Oslo. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.pandia.com/kids/index.html>.Vaidhyanthan, S. (2011) The Googlization of everything and why we should worry, University of California Press, Berkely.Wesch, M. (2009) ‘From knowledgable to knowledge-able: learning in new media environments’, Academic Commons, Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College,

Crawfordsville, IN. Viewed 07 October 2011. <www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/knowledgable-knowledge-able>. Yonck, R. (2011) ‘Treading in the sea of data’, Futurist 45(4), pp. 32–36.

References and further reading