Okay, so what the heck is Web 3.0?

The lurching, heaving behemoth of the Web will become a self-feeding entity someday, symmetrical and aligned with itself, ubiquitous and pervasive, not constrained by the browser or even a PC. That's the vision for the world wide Web after Web 2.0 - a concept where apps are islands, users interact only through portals that let them interact, programming languages don't understand each other, and we're limited by what the OS, the network, the browser, and the computer will permit.

I see Web 3.0 as a break from the computer altogether, something that exists outside of a keyboard and a mouse. As crazy as it sounds, there's a small wireless clock radio called Chumby that you might call a good example of Web 3.0. It's essentially a streaming media device that can play YouTube videos and show RSS feeds.

If Web 2.0 is the collection of useful, well-designed apps with semantic properties and social undertones, then Chumby is an example of those apps living free from the constraints of the PC and a Web browser, and becoming more a part of our lives. Wireless is all part of that, but not in the sense of a laptop and a browser -- Web content will become more pervasive when it breaks from the laptop and browser model, like the Chumby does, and appears on your dashboard, your TV, your bathroom mirror.

Chumby is an archaic device, one that uses awkward user-created interfaces and runs on 802.11g instead of something much faster. Yet, unlike streaming media appliances like Apple TV, Chumby is at least a genuine wireless product that lives and dies based on the community that supports it. (At last look, it may be dying, since I have not heard of anyone writing about it lately.)

But it at least presents one example of Web 3.0. The content is not tied to a browser or a PC, at least not in the traditional sense. (There actually is a kind of crude browser, so no analogy really works too well.) It's wireless, so the device can operate anywhere Wi-Fi is available. It lives off community created apps and serves a practical function: to wake you up, tell you the news, inform you about the day. The apps are powerful, not just light "mobile" versions that run on your phone.

Most importantly, the Chumby is for everyone. You just buy it, set it up, and start using it. Today, Web 2.0 users who want to manage their projects online use Basecamp. Everyone else - those who don't get Web 2.0 - uses Microsoft Project or some other desktop-bound tool.

Chumby also unifies security measures. Once you "approve" the device for your network (using a rather odd password system where you identify block locations on the screen), all Chumby apps will work. They trust you because they trust the Chumby. This equates to the single sign-on of OpenID.

Data lives in the cloud, separate from the device. There is no local storage. The Chumby is distributed, user-friendly, wireless, self-feeding - and maybe a little odd (it looks like a plush toy). But it also points to how Web 3.0 is all about breaking constraints and living apart from the traditional constructs. Long live Chumby! I hope it is still around when Web 3.0 hits.