In all the Web eras the fundamental hyper-linking property is actually the same. What differentiates Social Web (or Web 2.0), Semantic Web (or Web 3.0) and WebOS (or Web 4.0) from the Web 1.0 is that are currently exploiting link spaces to different benefit. Web 2.0 earns value from the social dimension of linkage properties, Web 3.0 from URI-based semantic linkages. We expect for WebOS that the interlinkage among data, software, machines and people in a broader scale could create a new source of value.
In the classical writing Odyssey of Homer, the blind prophet Tiresias advises Odysseus that: “It is the journey, not the destination.” (Homer, 1952). This poetic prose could be considered as the first recognition that the connecting links are more important than the nodes themselves. Similar ideas are basic parts of Systems theory (Von Bertalanffy, 1968) with wide application in science (e.g. control theory, operations research, social systems theory, systems biology, systems engineering and systems psychology).