The Overweb – Future of the Internet

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In this day and age, it is extremely difficult to imagine our lives without the internet. The worldwide web is our main source of entertainment, education, and information. Without it, we cannot know the latest news or find the recipe for our favorite dish. Yet, the web as we use it today has several loopholes. The most prominent one being the fact that information shared on the web has no credibility whatsoever.

Losing Annotations Is Where We Lost the Web

The internet of today is a two-dimensional space with no depth. People and their information are used as commodities by various platforms. Webpages are more focused on getting people to click and stay on their website to view ads rather than providing them with properly verified information. But, the internet wasn’t always meant to be this way. In fact, in its very early days, the internet was designed to be a hyper-dimensional interactive space underpinned by annotation – the ability to layer knowledge on webpages.

Now, any avid reader will know the importance of annotations. In books, annotations serve as an additional layer of knowledge that confirms or supports the written text. Annotations are the depth webpages of today were supposed to have. In fact, the internet’s predecessor ARPANET had annotations built into it. Even Mosaic, the world’s first widely used web browser had a special place for annotation. All of this was to enable the web to be a layered space where real people comment on real information.

In the year 1995, however, everything changed. Mosaic became Netscape and it started experimenting with group annotations. But there was no cloud to store all this information. On top of this, Microsoft started pre-installing Internet Explorer on all PCs, which proved to be an existential threat to Netscape. In this context, Netscape dropped annotations. This lack of annotations or layered knowledge in the new generation of browsers made the web a chaotic space. As there is little to no context, it is difficult to verify the credibility of the information being shared on the web.

Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape believes that this is where we lost the web and that the world wide web would have been really different if people were able to annotate and layer knowledge on top of web pages.

Bringing Back the Good Ol’ Days with The Overweb

Founded by Daveed Benjamin and Joshua Armah, The Overweb is an additional layer on the web that supports annotations and allows users to layer knowledge on top of web pages. It is powered by the Overchain blockchain network that aims to bring back real people and real information on the web.

By creating a hyperdimensional webspace with real people, the Overweb eliminates false virality and false information. It makes way for a fair exchange of value where information is verified and trusted. For instance, if there is an article about a scientific study, the study itself and all the other related interpretations of the study can be linked together into a shared context instantaneously accessible with the overlay. This enables the reader to get a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

Each and every piece of content on the Overweb becomes a source for thousands of other insights and interpretations. Apart from this, annotations on the Overweb are NFTs (non-fungible tokens). This means that the creators of these annotations have full ownership, control and can also monetize their content in the way they seem fit.

Furthermore, the Overweb rewards creators for their efforts and for verifying their identities. This ensures that every person has only a single account, eliminating fraud and misinformation. The Overweb also supports the creation of dApps in the annotation space.

All in all, the Overweb addresses the most pressing problems with the web and today’s web pages while transforming our two-dimensional web space into a layered multi-dimensional space where there are real people, real content, real engagement, and real rewards.

Making the Internet Great Again

The internet is an absolute necessity in today’s world. From school-going kids to senior-most citizens, almost every single person relies on the web for their information. If this information is shared freely without any credibility, there is always a danger of people being misinformed or misled.

Projects like the Overweb can be of immense help in such a case. They create a secure hyper-dimensional web space where knowledge is layered and users are verified. This significantly increases the credibility of the information and also presents all relevant information in a single place for participants’ convenience.

Having obtained a diploma in Intercultural Communication, Julia continued her studies taking a Master’s degree in Economics and Management. Becoming captured by innovative technologies, Julia turned passionate about exploring emerging techs believing in their ability to transform all spheres of our life.