The internet promised to change the world, change business, how we live, how society functions.

Used for a long time for military, academic, scientific, and specific corporate use, consumer use of the WWW exploded in the mid to late 90’s being further fueled by the .com boom.  While B2B and enterprise applications were being developed during the same period, the main focus was on the consumer using a browser, including the corporate consumer.  Not much notice was taken as HTTP was adopted as the main use of the WWW with email having a strong second place.  The same way that the PC dominated the desktop market, the browser and WWW dominated the internet.

Fast forward to post .com bust, and a new trend called “SEO” was dominating business internet discussions.  Since Google had seized a rare opportunity to dominate the search market, everyone wanted to be #1 in Google (forgetting that previously Google didn’t even exist).  Then this too fell out of fashion, in favor of ‘social media’ and the Socialnomics movement (Web 2.0).  Instead of searching Google for results, users of sites like Facebook would not bother going outside Facebook to find information.  This was especially true of sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, and others.  We have seen hints of a new “Web 3.0” trend but have not yet experienced the same technological paradigm shift as we saw in previous shifts.  We can speculate why this has not happened but let’s take a look at how the internet has been changing last few years.

Key groundbreaking developments last 3 years:

• Implementation of IP6 – we have literally run out of IP4 addresses!
• The opening up of TLD registration
• Wikileaks, and more recently Edward Snowden, changing how people think of internet usage
• Exponential growth of the “Dark Internet”

These combination of factors, happening in the backdrop of a severe global economic crisis, has permanently changed how the internet will be used in the future.  What the end of the WWW will look like:

• Decreased use of public websites
• Implementation of HTTP alternative
• Increased use of security tools such as Tor browser, making many websites dysfunctional
• New development with security and privacy in mind
• Decrease in use of Javascript, Flash, etc.
• Drastic change of the ‘free with advertisements’ model
• Death of SEO
• Decrease use of traditional ISPs, rise of Mesh Networks

Business models will also change.  The rise of the WWW brought with it a confluence of competing models, one being Google’s ‘free but with a catch’ and the other being Napster’s ‘pay a low membership fee’ with many in between.

Author Note:

Global Intel Hub is developing a model for the ‘new’ use of the internet.  Like all paradigm shift, it’s not about technology.  Internet infrastructure existed for decades before it was the right business, social, and political climate to utilize (no more cold war paranoia, investing in technology instead of weapons, etc.) Ask any WW2 pilot and they will tell you cellphones existed for the last 60 years!  But it took the right climate to build a business out of it.

We believe the only model to develop systems is an open-model.  Not only open-source, but open to participation, well documented, and in a closed system whereby developers are working in parallel to user development, providing a constant feedback loop.  So all the development will take place inside the private member network of the hub.

To contrast this model, Google gives you gmail, search, and other apps free – but they barrage you with ads and sell your data to corporations, who now even can offer you loans based on your social media habits ( https://www.avantcredit.com/ ), and gives your data to the NSA and other government agencies!  What’s wrong with the model ‘if it’s free, it’s for me’ – Google being extreme example as there are paid services that offer secure mail, corporate search (lexis nexus for example) and other paid-services without the security concerns or ads.  But it’s not only about money, payment also authenticates you as a ‘member’ – it’s a simple form of electronic due diligence.  If you can’t afford $10, and you don’t have a paypal account, you don’t qualify to be a member of Global Intel Hub.  Paying for membership is for a private security only, private membership.