Intro to the Semantic Web (aka web 3.0)

Editor's Notes

• #2: Surface turbulence: The “noise” of digital marketing. Things that may appear to be game changers, but quickly fade or become a part of life that can be easily adapted to. Examples include app releases (e.g. vine), rise & fall of websites (e.g. Groupon), memetic content (e.g. Gangnam), new device releases (e.g Google Glass) or visual changes within a major platform (Google SERP layout changes) Technology-driven currents: These trends are more powerful and businesses should look to take advantage of them, or at least learn to adapt their marketing mix to avoid running against the stream. These forces are fairly obvious to marketers about and are heavily discussed by tech press. Examples include device fragmentation & improvement (desktops > laptops > smartphones > tablets > phablets), algorithm updates to major search engines (Penguin & Panda), structural changes to advertising platforms (Google Enhanced Campaigns), infrastructure upgrades (rollout of 4g) or the reduction of “digital living costs” (e.g. capping of data roaming charges in the EU leads to explosion in mobile web usage abroad)Irresistible change: These are forces which have more to do with human psychology, the worldwide economy and/or the basic infrastructure of the web. The effects of these trends may take years to be felt and understood fully but they change entire digital landscapes. Industries live and die as these trends play out yet marketers may never fully understand them because they are not directly within the remit of the marketing press. The digital specialist, however, seeks out and attempts to frame these changes within the context of the web’s evolution and it’s place in our lives. This enables them to build better long term digital strategies for brands. The biggest current example of an irresistible change would be the arrival of the semantic web: the web is quietly becoming more organised as major platforms work together to accelerate the adoption of universal standards for labelling data. The web’s data has always been inconsistent as it lacks a centralised web council to impose labelling standards and ontologies. Now major platforms are collaborating and using their technological and economical levers to force brands and publishers into adopting consistent standards for describing objects, locations, events, measures and pricing. Another irresistible change would be the growth of participation: fuelled by people’s natural desire to see brands & institutions become more transparent, accountable and honest, developers & entrepreneurs continue to remove barriers that stop us contributing to the conversations we care about. The result is a fundamental shift in the public’s expectation of how brands & institutions should communicate with them. Mass-market broadcast messages have continually declined in relevance. Forward thinking digital strategy has at it’s heart small-scale, focussed messaging which encourages participation.
• #12: Structured data = barriers to entry into global aggregation drop dramaticallyThese sites are not a start point, therefore at risk from those sites which are a start point like Google, or the app storeGoogle likes brands, doesn’t like aggregatorsFundamentally these guys represent an extra process to connect you with what you want – therefore they are a prime target for semantic web elimination
• #16: Optimisation of paid search or display campaigns based on weather, football results, what grocery you buyMarketing software highlights correlations between wider data and sales figuresMy phone wakes me up early because the Northern Line has severe delays