Craig Burton, who recently joined Kuppinger Cole, authored an insightful article, “Bringing the Web to Life at Last,” addressing two compelling topics: “The Live Web” and the “Internet of Things“.  His final statement provides an apt summary:

We don’t need a Facebook of Things. We need an Internet of Things. We need the Live Web.

Craig outlines the basis concepts of the Live Web:

The term Live Web was first coined by Doc Searls and his son Allen Searls to describe a Web where timeliness and context matter as much as relevance. It blossoms with the following three assumptions:

• All things are connected to the Internet.
• All things are recorded and tagged.
• All things can be recalled and accessed in context.

The Live Web is made up of three core principles that give rise to generating context:

• First principle: Ubiquitous programmable data access. (APIs)
• Second principle: Ubiquitous event-based endpoints.
• Third principle: Ubiquitous event-based evaluation and execution machines.

Note that the three principles match the three assumptions.

Craig explains how, even if all devices are connected to the Internet (the Internet of Things), the current web paradigm, as wonderful as it is, would not work well, because the current web operates as a tightly-coupled manner, like Facebook:

The problem with the idea of a big “Facebook of Things” kind of site is the tight coupling that it implies a person would have to take charge of all the devices. You would have to “friend” each one. And remember, these are devices, so not only do you have to connect and “friend” them but you will be doing the work of managing them.

…

This just isn’t going to happen. Ever.

However, applying Live Web principles and loosely coupling the device will enable the Internet of Things to work:

Each device can interpret that message however it sees fit or ignore it altogether. This significantly reduces the complexity of the overall system because individual devices are loosely coupled.

It will be fun to see the progressive realization of these concepts: all devices connected to the Internet and coupled in a loose sort of way that makes possible all kinds of interesting applications.  I just  wonder how long will it be before I can sit here at my desk and command my Live Web connected kitchen to cook me up a nice omelette for breakfast?