The Shortest Path to the Future Web

This column\´s title could suggest that there is only one best path forward for the Web. The path begins with document metadata and travels through the world of microformats and embedded data. A waypoint is a semantic Web that leverages these approaches, along with those offered by an environment more capable of managing first-class data directly. This is only one path, however, and it probably isn\´t the shortest. The Internet is a rich environment with billions of active agents. Natural selection, mutation, and genetic breeding of sorts all happen to software systems, together with a significantly higher proportion of "intelligent design" than found in the real world. The net effect is that many different evolutionary paths are being explored simultaneously, and several could lead to a better Web