Web 4.0 Emergent

I have been intrigued with the evolution of the web and its capabilities. For the past few years, I’ve thought of four evolutionary phases of the web:

• Web 1.0: the increasingly digitization of content (and yes, I want all books, music, photographs and other materials all digitized)
• Web 2.0: collaboration but of two flavors – collaboration between and among people (otherwise called social networking) and collaboration between programs (otherwise called web services)
• Web 3.0: having the capabilities of understanding the contextual relationships between and among unstructured data (also considered the Semantic Web)
• Web 4.0: blending of tangible assets and intangible assets (what I consider confluence)

When people ask me what I really mean about Web 4.0 or confluence, I sort of wave my arms and spout heuristic explanations. But now, thank you iPhone (and Android), I can point to applications that actually describe the marrying of tangible and intangible assets.

In the Technology Review article, dated September 23, 2009 and titled “What’s Augmented Reality’s Killer App?” the author – Kristina Grifantini discusses several applications currently being developed. She defines Augmented Reality as the ability to “superimpose virtual objects and information on top of the real world.”

This is definitely a capability insurers must be aware of and understand to better underwrite business and manage claims. And technology firms involved with spatial intelligence and/or applying semantic technologies should be salivating.

What do you think? How could insurers use Augmented Reality?