Introducing The Cobweb
What is The Cobweb? The Cobweb is a term coined by Samuel Holmes in 2017 on a medium post regarding the the Distributed Web. In a similar fashion to what Jesse James Garrett had done in a 2005 paper in regards to Ajax–a set of web development techniques to create asynchronous web applications–Cobweb is a similar attempt at labeling all forms of a distributed web.
The Spiral-Orb Web
Typically when one thinks of a spider web, they think of a spiral-orb web associated primarily with the Araneidae family of spiders. This web is in a circular spiral shape with an obvious center.
This is comparable to how the current Web 2.0 is shaped. The Web is a centralized network with all of the outer nodes connecting inward to a point in the center (Google, Facebook, etc).
The Cobweb
The term “cobweb” (or tangled web) is used to describe the tangled three-dimensional web of some spiders of the Theridiidae family. This type of web differs from the typical expectation of a spider-web in that its structure is that of a mesh with no obvious center.
The Cobweb is a decentralized and distributed network of web applications and web data. Nodes act not only as clients, but also as servers. The Cobweb is a network like IPFS, DAT, and possibly more to come. It is the Web 3.0.
The future of the Web and the Internet is a distributed one, untied from the bounds of a central authority. It is distributed amongst all of us. It is an equalizer. It is a nervous system of the information of humanity. It is the Cobweb.
