The Difference Between WWW and the Spatial Web

What is the Difference Between the World Wide Web and the Spatial Web?

Why Do We Need a Spatial Web?

The internet as we know it was created to connect things — first computers, then web pages, and now, we are attempting to use it to connect 3D spaces and provide experiences within them, like Metaverses and Digital Twins.

In the beginning, bandwidth and chip speeds were so slow that the greatest capability between networked computers was email, and what a marvel that was!

By 1995, chips and network speeds were faster, enabling the possibility for full pages of formatted text and super low-res images, and voila! The web page was born!

When the internet began, it was intended to connect “nodes” in an interlinked system to share information. These nodes started out as servers with an IP address (Internet Protocol Address).

Then came internet service providers, modems, and routers to provide your location with an IP address, allowing multiple devices to connect to the internet through that same IP. Today, over 40 Billion computers are connected to the internet!

The fundamental concept of the internet was simple. Provide every computer on the network with an address and a non-commercial standard protocol (TCP/IP), allowing them to communicate freely with each other.

This opened up cross-communication channels between people, companies, governments, and schools, allowing anyone, anywhere in the world to send files from one computer to another.

Ah, the glory days of email.

Tim Berners-Lee took this concept one step further when he created the World Wide Web, flipping and extending the idea of an IP address for a computers into IDs for web pages in the form of URLs. He also created a free, non-commercial standard protocol — HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, and now any computer could access entire web pages from anywhere in the world.

Digital technology has grown into a space where we now have multiple devices — computers, mobile phones, iPads, smart TVs, game consoles, smart watches, smart appliances, etc… all connecting through a singular IP address (your home or office).

In the next 10 years, trillions of new IoT (internet of things) sensors will be coming online. Everything will be attempting to connect and share data.

The biggest challenge with the World Wide Web is that it was created to share pages of information — web pages.

With the increase in bandwidth and chip speeds over time, we have jackhammered out of that technology the ability to share media within those pages, even real-time streaming of video and audio communications, so we actually feel like we are connected in a physical and digital way.

The reality, however, is that today’s internet technology is extremely limited and stifled in the possibilities of merging physical and digital experiences.

Consider some of the Metaverse spaces that have come online in the past year or so. Much of the general public is confused by what appears to be poor graphics as if we have gone backward in time (think Decentraland).

The non-technical user doesn’t understand that decentralized applications (dApps) require more resources to perform multiple operations over many systems that are all working together.

The World Wide Web, Web 2.0, is just not capable of handling that demand well without sacrificing either graphics or speed.

We are also missing some critical data points that are necessary to make sense of the data, and we are stuck in a situation of giving away our data through use, rather than being able to own and protect our own data from the inception.

Over the past 25 years, chip speeds and network speeds have increased significantly along with this increase in demand and new decentralized technologies. These Web 3.0 technologies require a new protocol that can link spaces and all objects within them. For a completely interoperable Web 3.0 experience, Metaverses and Digital Twins need to be networked, indexed, discoverable, and accessible by anyone or any_thing_, anywhere, at any time. Smart Cities will require the ability to access both physical and digital representations of spaces, objects, and situations simultaneously, enabling jumping between these states.

The Spatial Web solves this by expanding on the Web 2.0 internet model by providing a Digital ID (DID) to every Metaverse and every Digital Twin of real-world spaces.

The new open, non-commercial protocol for the Spatial Web is called HSTP (Hyperspace Transaction Protocol).

This is the missing glue for Web 3.0. This new protocol enables the interoperability for all spaces and objects. We are not just connecting information through computers anymore. We are connecting every person, place, or thing, both real and virtual.

The main difference between the internet as we know it and the Spatial Web is this: WWW domains are Stateless.

The data being produced and shared through interactions on the Web 2.0 internet does not get captured within those interactions on the web itself. There are no web channels making decisions along the way and recording actions as the data travels between servers.

The data interactions and modifications are documented within the endpoint servers, i.e., user info, user behavior, exchanges of data, data requests, permissions, etc… So, you as the user, have no control over what happens to this data. It’s a byproduct of your usage.

The corporations who own and govern the endpoints of the exchanges of information, i.e., browsers and servers, they own that accumulated data, and they get to decide what to do with it.

Thus far, they have monetized the heck out of it for their own benefit and corporate profits, i.e., Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Facebook, etc…

On the other hand, the Spatial Web is Stateful. Through HSTP (Hyperspace Transaction Protocol), the data is generated by and between 3D locations, modeling objects in space in a very standardized way using HSML (Hyperspace Modeling Language).

The data generated within and between the various states and conditions occurring between these entities are captured, owned, and controlled by the user that is generating the data. This ensures your data sovereignty.

You own your data. You decide who and what may access it, when and for how long, if at all.

That Alone Is So Powerful.

The World Wide Web is a library of pages and information.

The Spatial Web is a library of spaces governing objects (people, places, things), under context control factors of locations, activities, and identities, in various states of reality or circumstances, over time.

WWW Domains are libraries of information data. Spatial Domains are libraries of Spaces with securely managed digital rights, governing authorized access regarding who or what can access, modify, publish, transact or interact with content.

This web of spaces includes physical spaces, digital twin spaces, or completely virtual spaces. It allows for movement between all spaces and is able to consider all circumstances within each space simultaneously.

The Spatial Web enables what VERSES Technologies refers to as, “Global Collaboration at Scale.”

Using HSTP, you can query over multiple dimensions — 4D, over time, over temperature, motion, pressure, light — any physical reality that can be defined in a computational way.

The “space” in Spatial is not only taking coordinates into account but also states, like passing of time, change in ownership, and even changes in emotional states like measurements of happiness or satisfaction — any combination of any condition of any dimension that can be defined, addressed and computed.

The Spatial Web is upon us, enabling network effects across everything imaginable and measurable in regard to the who, what, when, where, how, and why of everything real and virtual, physical and digital, over time.

To learn more about the Spatial Web Protocol and the evolution of Web 3.0, visit SpatialWebFoundation.org