• Web 1.o – what we had initially and it was all about content. Companies used these capabilities, such as they were, to provide brochureware to clients and prospects who clicked over to their company web site.
• Web 2.0 – the sweet spot of where we are now and it is all about collaboration. I see the collaboration as having two major flavors – 1) collaboration between people expressed by social networking – and 2) collaboration between software programs expressed by web services
• Web 3.0 – the contextual web and where we are headed next. The capabilities inherent in the contextual web are semantic technologies which enable the meaning(s) of text data to be understood, managed and analyzed.
• Web 4.0 – the world of confluence where tangible assets and intangible assets come together in meaningful ways. We see the beginnings of that in some of the apps on the iPhone (and probably on the Blackberry but, alas and aghast, I don’t have one of those.)

Another instantiation of Web 4.0 is augmented reality - wearing goggles that have information available to the person wearing them to better complete various tasks. The Technology Review article the link points to discusses how mechanics can complete their jobs faster and more effectively.

But think about using AR goggles for insurance claims adjudication and management.

Using AR goggles, a claims adjuster could visit a homeowner who is claiming a loss and see both the actual home as it is now after the loss and the home as it was before the loss. The AR goggles could access information from the insurance company’s databases or sources from the web showing detailed information about labor requirements, building materials and costs.

More generally, the AR goggles could show the processes and resources needed to adjudicate the claim in a way that remediates the loss to bring the claimant’s home back to the way it was before the loss event.

Similarly, AR goggles could be used by claim adjusters for automobile claims.

Yes, augmented reality might be as far off as ten years from now but I wouldn’t be surprised if some industries – other than our slow-moving insurance industry – are using AR well before that. Would you?

• 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?