How Steemit Is Teaching the World About the New Web

I’ve only been in steemit for 40 days, so I feel that I may not be qualified to write on the subject. If you are expecting this to be some kind of an expert opinion, I suggest you hit the back button and continue browsing. This post summarizes mere observations of a minnow.

In a mass communication class at the university in 1998, our first lesson was about global villages. At that time, this referred to constant presence between one another via the use of telecommunication. The concept of global village has changed since. Today, even the advent of the web may very well be considered ancient history. In 2004 “web 2.0” was popularized at a conference by O’Reilly Media, here Tim O’Reilly emphasized how the internet is changing and highlighted ease of use, user-generated content, and collaboration to be amongst the key changes. Users started having more and more input to the scope and content of the web real-time; against the earlier view and download nature of “web 1.0”. Discussions about how we are yet again at the dawn of another evolution of the web are all over the internet. I will refrain from discussing this at length and would instead direct you to these links for further readings should you wish to:

5 main features of Web 3.0
Web 3.0: The Third Generation Web is Coming
What Is Web 3.0 and Is It Here Yet?

In a nutshell, “web 3.0” would be best described as the more intelligent version of the web. Quoting from the article in the second link, “Web 3.0, a phrase coined by John Markoff of the New York Times in 2006, refers to a supposed third generation of Internet-based services that collectively comprise what might be called ‘the intelligent Web’ — such as those using semantic web, microformats, natural language search, data-mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies — which emphasize machine-facilitated understanding of information in order to provide a more productive and intuitive user experience.”

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With advanced artificial intelligence, the internet will be bound to become more and more dehumanized. People involved in the further development of “web 3.0” may learn a thing or two from steemit.

Keeping Human Interaction and Interest at the Core

While some steemians get irked by bots, I feel that at the moment, co-existence of bots and humans in steemit is maintained at a balance. I as a minnow used a bot or two in the minnowsupport project. I am very thankful that such existed specially in my early days as I am building my skills and reputation in the community. If at some point bots starts taking over the platform, it would only be because we let it happen. I make it a point to read the content and the comments both, and while bots exist, the human interaction rules. AI is already here, and the earlier we accept that, the better. AI is the biggest risk I see in my industry, the BPO. Steemit, to this point (I hope for the long run) manages to keep robots under control. In fact, a lot of the bots exists keeping human interest in mind. Sure there are abuses from the bots, but it is nothing compared to human abuses I’ve observed.

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The Concept of Witness

I suggest reading through this post to learn about this concept: A Full Steemit User's Guide to Steem Witnesses. The post is from last year, but still is a good description. The concept of witness means that the users have the power to choose how we wish to be represented. If you haven’t voted for witnesses, I strongly suggest you do now. I will leave some instructions on how to do this towards the end. I would also have recommended witnesses that I’d have to admit would be biased based on proximity.

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Helping Yourself by Helping Others

Sure, there are people who are fixated to the short-term rewards. As I spend more time in the platform though, I see clearer by the day that those who become really successful here learned early on that this is about getting rewarded only up-to what you are willing to contribute. Thus, the more you give - the more you get. There is a real risk of AI abuse, but at the very core, Steemit was built so that such never truly becomes successful.

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To further the growth of the community, I also suggest voting for Filipino witnesses who dedicate their time to grow and support the Filipino community in steemit.

How to vote?
• Use the witness page https://steemit.com/~witnesses
• scroll down the page until you see the vote box below and enter

• click VOTE!

Warm Regards,

@steemitph