The internet has led to a development that has largely gone unnoticed by society, connecting billions of people with one another. Today, further development is driven by scalable business models that are designed to work for as many people as possible. These business models are represented by centralized portals with monopolistic structures.
With priority from June 9, 1999, Olaf Berberich was granted a European patent under the number PCT/EP2000/005225, in which, even back then, search entries were to be semantically understood and transferred not only to a portal but to approximately 1,000 search engines for each language.
This gave rise to the idea of a Trusted WEB 4.0 of diversity to guarantee free competition and protect minorities.
The term Trusted WEB 4.0 was introduced by Olaf Berberich in 2007. „Trusted WEB 4.0 is the integration of all resources available on the web into a comprehensive system. Machines, devices, and people are globally accessible, organized in decentralized, anonymized structures. Trusted WEB 4.0 maps pre-digital social structures in the digital society.
Value chains are being reorganized.“
Trusted WEB 4.0[1] is characterized by decentralization, anonymity, and technological economy.
Decentralization in Trusted WEB 4.0 means:
Everyone is responsible for their own data and has the right to dispose of it, whether privately, within a company, or vis-à-vis third parties.
Each individual must be attacked separately. The effort involved is comparable to that required in the pre-digital era.
Anonymity in Trusted WEB 4.0 means:
You cannot attack targets you do not know.
A special feature of Trusted WEB 4.0 is WAN anonymity. Only in individual cases and by court order can anonymity be lifted by an intermediary, usually a lawyer[2].
Technology economy is a new feature of Trusted WEB 4.0:
The term is based on data economy. Today, hardware and software increasingly include enhancements such as wireless standards that are not necessary for the current application. This creates backdoors for attacks. Technology economy means that minimal technical concepts are intelligently combined with standards. For example, where a window is sufficient, no door is installed, or in technical terms, a unidirectional data connection is sufficient. No connection to the internet is established at all if autonomous, decentralized systems can make their own decisions within an intranet. This concept will become increasingly important as AI becomes more widespread.
The result is a demand to „create a binding infrastructure for every citizen through which constitutional fundamental rights can be enforced in the digital society. Such an infrastructure must be defined and developed through interdisciplinary research. AI and other technologies must be used in such a way that democracies remain competitive in the long term. […..] What is needed is Trusted WEB 4.0 research that complements security with the characteristics of decentralization, anonymity, and technology economy.“[3]
The following part of the article was already published in 2015:
WEB 4.0 is the next generation after WEB 3.0.
WEB 3.0 is equated with the Semantic Web in the German Wikipedia (unlike in the American Wikipedia). It states: ‘All information expressed in human language on the Internet should be provided with a clear description of its meaning (semantics) that can also be understood or at least processed by computers.’
The finder technology we developed and launched on the market in 2000, i.e. at the dawn of WEB 2.0, already corresponds to this definition.
We never claimed to work with artificial intelligence (such as Semantic Web), but rather to achieve the goal of WEB 3.0 through a simple and practical solution. Finder technology reduces its claim to processing inputs in a search field for the computer in such a way that it can perform actions depending on the respective meaning of a word. This works by assigning words to cross-language categories.
For this, we were granted European patent 00940336.1, registered in 1999, in 2011.
In order to also take the smart home sector into account, we registered the Semantic Switch, a semantic method for performing switching operations, in 2011 under 10 2011 017 151.7.
This laid the foundation for Web 4.0.
Web 4.0 is the integration of all resources available on the web into a comprehensive system that can be individually configured by the user. Information reaches the user at the right moment. Different actions can be performed for each category, such as triggering complex processes or switching devices.
Resources refer to all resources, not just technical resources. The task is to adapt global value chains to the online age. Via the Internet, everyone can be integrated into the value creation process in a manner appropriate to their performance.
Trusted WEB works according to the WerWertWahr principle.
Can the provider be verified as tamper-proof?
What value does information have for the user?
Is the information about an event or product objectively correct? (Verifiability, assessability)
Trusted Web 4.0 means that all possibilities are exploited to ensure optimal data protection and data security for all parties involved.
The basic prerequisite for this is the development of data-efficient business models and decentralized data storage.
Several patents have been filed for decentralized data transmission and storage, as well as for a tamper-proof smartphone.
Studies on a decentralized and anonymized internet can be found at GISAD.
References
Trusted Web 4.0 – Concepts of a Digital Society – Concepts of Decentralization and Anonymization | Olaf Berberich | Springer. (springer.com [accessed on October 1, 2018]).
Trusted WEB 4.0 – Infrastructure for a Digital Constitution – Recommendations for Action for Legislation, Society, and the Social Market Economy | Olaf Berberich | Springer. (springer.com [accessed on October 1, 2018]).
Key Issues Paper: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning | CPS.HUB / NRW. Accessed on October 1, 2018.