Why the Spatial Web Demands a New Protocol - Part 1

How Does the Internet Evolve?

ByDenise Holt

November 16, 2022

Before we go deep diving into the new Spatial Web Protocols, HSTP and HSML, it is important to understand what brought us to this point. As technology evolves, the way in which we interact with it and utilize it to enhance our daily lives and productivity naturally demands more expansion and sophistication over time. As humans, we are naturally curious beings, always pushing boundaries to new heights of discovery. This basic factor, coupled with Ray Kurweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns, sets forth the evolution of information technologies on a predictable and exponential trajectory of growth, creating an increasingly more complex interrelationship and interdependency with our way of life.

What has this trend looked like over time?

The Evolution of Computing

Operating systems and computer programs on personal computers.

Computing model comprised of 3 layers:

Logic — programs based on sets of rules — if, then, etc…
Data — user information as a result of interacting with program.
Interface — provides usable access point for user to interact with program.

Computers After the Web

3 new layers for shared, networked computing:

Logic — Website
Data Storage — Web Server
Interface — Web Browser

Smart Phone & Mobile Computing Enters the Scene

The 3 layers evolve for mobile computing:

Logic — Apps
Data Storage — Cloud storage for instant mobile access
Interface — mobile screens (phone, tablet, smart TV etc..)

Web 3.0 — The Spatial Web

Computing in 3D spaces:

Logic — AI — Artifical Intelligence
Data Storage — Blockchains
Interface — AR/VR, IOT, Metaverse, and Digital Twin

With each evolution of added layers, you gain new abilities to accommodate the growth in technological development. The progress and expansion of technology increases the capacity of our performance and potential, so we spend about 80% of our time in these new computing spaces.

Yet, with each progression, we do not lose access to any of the old systems, and the same will be true of the Spatial Web. These new technologies will not force you to use AI, but you can, and it will save you time and effort, increasing your capacity for search, creativity, safety, and so much more. You don’t have to use blockchains in the Spatial Web. You can still use the cloud. However, blockchains solve for many of our Web 2.0 problems with security and centralized authority verses decentralized access. Same with AR/VR. These new interfaces are not mandatory. They will merely provide for better, more immersive experiences, with IOT allowing real-time updates and adjustments.

One fascinating element contrasting this computing era as different from any previous evolution, the Spatial Web introduces two users at the interface level. Artificial Intelligence, as a virtual assistant, becomes a companion user to every person participating in Web 3.0, whether they realize it or not.

Trillions of IOT sensors are coming online in these next ten years with data points that AI will interact with to update digital twin environments in real time. Over time, AI “assistants” will become the dominant user of the Spatial Web, parsing the gargantuan amount of data and information for us to access, use, and navigate through our daily lives.

Human Connection + Computing Progress = Exponential Network Increase

As the computing capabilities have matured and evolved over time, we have also become more connected on every level. From sending mere messages from one computer to another, to sharing and accessing scores of information on websites, to mobile computing, social media, and gaming, each new stage of computing has required updated methods for processing the new types of data and information exchange. Developing new protocols provides the necessary framework for increasingly complex network growth, establishing cohesion through common rules and guidelines.

The Evolution of Computing

1st Internet (Late 1970’s)

Email — Only needed one protocol: TCP/IP

Only one function — to send a message from one computer to another.

2nd Internet (1990)

World Wide Web — Websites — New protocol + formatting language — HTTP + HTML, and then Javascript (1995)

HTTP gave web browsers the ability to identify web pages and their locations through a unique ID / IP address.
HTML provided a common language and set of rules to format the web pages so that web browsers can read them and display the content.
Javascript is used for interaction.

3rd Internet (Now)

Internet of Everything — Requires a new protocol and formatting language — HSTP and HSML

HSTP gives browsers the ability to link spaces with an ID for every person, place or thing — both digital and physical (virtual or real).
Much more than a location identifier — HSTP is a query language and gate-keeper, allowing various parties the ability to agree on who, what, and where anything is in space, and what can be done with it.
HSTP allows for query over multiple dimensions, identifying, localizing and updating the state of objects in space and over time.
HSTP supports credentialed search of objects throughout all spatial ranges, allowing for restricted access based on any access parameters desired.

HSML provides an open standard common language to format all spaces through computable context awareness defining all physical and social dimensions, by recognizing and deciphering policy, rights, meaning and culture, at all levels of embedded systems, incorporating all data and relationships throughout and between them.
All context elements get structured into a universal governance graph representing and revealing correlation, interconnection, and interdependencies within.
Using measurable context, HSML becomes the foundation for a new generation of artificial intelligence and data sharing.

Web 3.0 (the Spatial Web) Requires a New Massive Scope of Global Collaboration

Initially the web was constructed as static documents, structured for information display and public access.

In 2004, YouTube arrived on scene, introducing a new concept of user generated content, ushering in a new era, bringing social networks into existence, as well as websites like, Wikipedia, granting users the ability to create and update website information. Along with the increased availability and affordability of high-speed connections, the web was suddenly transformed into an interactive platform embodying a new media-rich model of information exchange, Web 2.0.

Web 3.0 moves beyond users interacting with websites. The technologies of Web 3.0, including AR, VR, AI, and IOT, necessitate interaction with each other, along with the user, within multiple environments, whether real world or Metaverse/Digital Twin, allowing for the jumping in and out of each, updating in real time. This requires thinking very differently about data connection within and between all objects, circumstances, and people.

A new protocol and formatting language was inevitable.

This is Part 1 of a four part article titled, Why the Spatial Web Demands a New Protocol. Read Part 2 here.

To learn more about the Spatial Web Protocol and the evolution of Web 3.0, visit SpatialWebFoundation.org

All content on this site is independently created by Denise Holt. If you enjoy this content, please consider supporting my efforts at patreon.com/SpatialWebAI