Sir Tim Berners-Lee is here at LinkedData Planet. He just gave a press conference that still has my head spinning, because he talks really fast. Oh, plus he's brilliant. Now he's giving the show's special keynote on the "Web of Data." The Grand Ballroom is packed.

Having created the World Wide Web nearly 20 years ago, he now is proselytizing for what he calls the "Linked Open Data Movement." His basic premise is that the way data is accessed now is primitive compared to what will come. That's because the semantic web (or Web 3.0 or linked open data) will allow information to accessed contextually.  More specifically, he says:

Users will be able to explore linked data on the web and find new data sources

Users will be able to find interesting patterns

Machines will be able to find all matching patterns in the data out there

Users will be able to query across previously unconnected sources

Users will be able to analyze the results a la spreadsheet

Users can see the data in terms of timelines and maps

Sounds a lot better than your typical schlocky Google search, if you ask me.

Berners-Lee addressed the security issues raised by this increased contextualization of data. Specifically, organizations are worried that the development of "linked open data" will cause proprietary information to be exposed. He says that won't happen if the organizations don't want them to. There are still firewalls and other security measures which the advent of semantic web technology won't be able to breach. (Yes, I'm dumbing this down, but you try to keep up with him.)

Thank God, he just said, "It's difficult to explain. It's a paradigm shift, and we haven't got the terms."