The WebOS is rapidly and spontaneously evolving as we speak, with Google
leading the pack. Microsoft is probably out of the running, despite the best
efforts of Ray Ozzie -- the Microsoft culture is too wedded to the desktop
model to powerfully innovate in this field. Google will probably control the
Webtop world and become the most important company on the planet (if it isn't
already). The transition from Webtop to desktop is one of the most important
revolutions in computing history. (Nova Spivack, btw, is probably one of the
ten best minds on the net overall -- the global intelligence thing is in his
blood. This stuff is infinitely more interesting, creative and productive than
the primitive and infantile bickering that dominates Mideast politics.)
Albert Underwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This debate has been raging for years, but no one seems to want to try it out.
Microsoft, Sun are the big arguers.
Sean McBride <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader:
Moving to a Web OS via Minding the Planet by Nova on Jun 05, 2007
John Markoff published an interesting article today in the New York Times
about the shift in software and operating systems from the desktop to the Web,
in which I am quoted. The article focuses on the rivalry and different styles
between Microsoft and Apple's next-generation projects that attempt to tie
desktop operating systems and the Internet together more closely. I have been
tracking this trend for a while now -- a trend towards the evolution of what I
call a "WebOS."
In my view the coming WebOS will not live only on the desktop, rather it
will be a web service that lives "in the cloud." Desktops will become views
into it, rather than the center of it. The desktop PC era is almost over. We
are entering a new era of mobility and plurality -- our digital lives will be
spread across multiple devices, most of which will be mobile. We will require
access to everything, no matter what device we are on.
When a user logs onto any device -- be it a laptop or a mobile device -- they
will connect to their account in the WebOS. The local device will synch with
their WebOS account to get their latest desktop layout, their preferences, and
any new notifications or changes.
End-User access to the WebOS will be primarily through browser-based
applications written in scripting languages, or running on server-side apps
written in Java, C# or Ruby, rather than native desktop apps. Cases where
native desktop code may still be needed will include high-end graphics and
audio processing, or numerical calculations, that require a lot of
computation. But for most consumers, such high-end needs are rare, except in
the cases of gaming and multimedia. With the increase in mobile broadband and
improvements in user-interface technologies, it will become less necessary to
have native desktop code for such experiences -- more and more of this will
move to the Web. When native computation is needed it will take place via
embedding and running scripts in the local browser to leverage local resources,
rather than installing and running software locally on a permanent basis. Most
applications will actually be hybrids, combining local and remote services in a
seamless interface.
Once connected, the WebOS will provide users with a single point of access to
their data, their relationships, their preferences, and their applications,
anywhere, anytime, on any device. It will also begin to unify, or at least
integrate, the data and functionality of different online and desktop
applications in what will appear to the end-user to be "one place." Even though
we may have accounts, data and relationships in many different services around
the Web, our WebOS will provide us with a unified, centralized way to access
this information. It will reduce the fragmentation in our digital lives and
help to improve our productivity.
Imagine being able to go to one place on the Web to access all your email,
documents, photos, videos, contacts and social relationships, RSS, data
records, bookmarks, notes, and any other kind of knowledge or information.
Imagine also that in this place you could also access all your "applications"
-- which themselves would be modular widgets or bits of functionality provided
by various different web services and app developers around the Web. Imagine
that in this place it would be easy to create new data types, populate them
with data, and share them with others. Imagine that it would be just as easy
to create new applications that could use that data, and share them too.
Think of the WebOS as the ultimate personal mashup. It would not matter
anymore where information was actually stored -- it could live in the cloud on
the Net so it was available 24/7, and it could also be cached onto local
devices like phones and laptops so that it was available locally or offline
when needed. You could start to mix and mash your data in all sorts of new ways
-- you could for example see the connections between different kinds of things,
or you could generate reports that might show for example, photos and videos by
people you work with, or blog posts by your friends, or files related to
meetings you are scheduled for, etc.
Because all information and application functionality would start to be
integrated on a meta-level in the WebOS, new efficiencies in search, navigation
and discovery would become possible. But to accomplish this there would need to
be an easier and more flexible way to represent the data itself -- a more
open, extensible, remixable data model. Enter RDF, SPARQL, OWL and the Semantic
Web. I believe these technologies provide a data framework that can help to
accomplish this vision.
This vision of a WebOS is something I have been wishing for, and working
towards, for a long time. My own startup, Radar Networks, is actually building
something like this, based completely on RDF and the Semantic Web. Stay tuned!
We plan to go beta in the fall. If you are interested, visit our website and
sign up for our mailing list to be invited for early-access.
Things you can do from here:
Visit the original item on Minding the Planet
Subscribe to Minding the Planet using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite
sites
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Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.
