The Future of the World Wide Web?

The Web started as a simple and very usable distributed system that was rapidly adopted. The Web protocols then passed through a period of rationalization and development to separate content from presentation in order to promote the re-usability of content on different devices. Today the developments in Web technologies are addressing new opportunities in Web Services and the Semantic Web, as well as the growing cultural diversity of the Web. These developments unite in the issue of trust, of content and services available on the Web, but also in access by others to the content and services that users may own. While the Web has been rationalizing, the Grid has developed to provide academic science with easier access to services and content. The Grid is now moving to exploit the robust interoperable commodity Web Services instead of maintaining its own middle level infrastructure. As Web Services, the Grid and the Semantic Web develop they will become increasingly interdependent on each other, and indistinguishable from the mainstream Web.