The Symbiotic Web

When Andrei Alexandrescu gives a speech, you can set your watch on learning something new about C++. After all, he's one of the top C++ experts in the world. Which explains why I thought just maybe I'd wandered into the wrong room at the Dr. Dobb's/CSDN Software Development 2.0 conference when I saw the title slide "Beyond Web 2.0". But no, there was Andrei behind the podium, and yes, he really was going to talk about something other than C++.

Not that he has turned his back on his favorite programming language, but Andrei has been focusing his research on other things, namely natural-language processing and how it relates to the Web to produce something he calls the "Symbiotic Web." In the Symbiotic Web, machines are an active part of the Web, thereby lending value to it. In this scenario, the Web becomes a collaborator instead of just a wire to move data around on. Using powerful interconnected computers and natural-language processing software, computers will "read" and "understand" text intended for humans.

At the same time, natural-language processing will render speech to just another input method over a mesh of web services. In scenarios such as this, you might enjoy automated speech translation in real time, with the system (a cell phone?) even adopting the tone and unique qualities of your (and the other party's) voice.

How close are we to this Symbiotic Web? Well, closer than you might think, with some voice dialog systems already being usable and others beginning to be commodatized. No wonder Andrei is excited about the near future of natural-language processing.

And Andrei's afternoon speech? How about "Lock-Free C++ Programming"? Hey, what did you expect? Once a C++ programmer, always a C++ programmer.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 07:51 AM  Permalink