Web 3.0
Some time ago I wrote a small article about web 3.0 as I saw it. It was about moving more and more work and information to web and maybe creating something like a webOS.
Indeed, more and more work and information has moved over the last 2-3 years onto the web. Words like Rich Internet Application and Software as a Service become vary popular and even more, a reality.
Ajax and Flex have enriched our web experience a lot in the recent years. Web sites that do not have a nice information flow to the customer are less and less visited. We as customers value this kind of things. I like to go to an web site and work my way through the information without being interrupted by a page refresh.
Also media on the web become a something very common. If some years ago watching a flash movie on the web was a rare event, now sites like youtube.com made this a common thing.
All of this was possible due to multiple factors but I think the main one was easier access to broadband internet connection for more and more people. The ability to move around massive amounts of date was crucial to the web development we are seeing right now. Would you try to watch a movie on youtube.com over a 3 Kb/s line? Even going on flickr.com will make you think twice, especially if you are paying by the MB.
So BTW, what are we paying by the MB right now and is slow compared to our unlimited broadband connection from home?
The next rethinking about the way we are writing web applications will be linked to the mobile business. iPhone, HTC, Eten, BlackBerry will be the new drivers in shaping up the new generation of web application. They have a small screen, slow and very expensive internet connection, however more and more people are using them to browse the web. The experience right now is far from enjoyable as most web applications are not designed for this. All of them are using different pan and zoom techniques to overcome the screen problem but this is just an workaround.
Soon, some business owner will look to his site analytics reports and figure out that more than a half of his visitors are using mobile devices. And this business owner will go to a contractor and ask him to optimize the web site to be best view on mobile devices. Web 3.0 was born.
I guess that Duane can argue forever against the term Web 3.0 since a while back he wrote Stop using the term “Web 3.0″!!!. For me is only a way to see the diversity of views inside Adobe, be it Canadian or Romanian
Leaving aside the presumptive debate the you might have with Duane I do acknowledge that in some future we will talk about web 3.0. All the elements mentioned: RIA, SaaS, mobile phones, are elements envisaged and coined in web 2.0, and as far as I know come in a large paradigm defined by semantic web. Even more, on the last element, mobile phones, there are many hurdles in our way in becoming mobile-web proficient, unless you are Thad Starner – if you’ll watch him you will get where I’m going with my argumentation. But as I always said in the past I’m not a great debater when it’s all about technology, and moreover the term webOS, which draw my attention in your phrasing, makes my neutral to this debate. The only presentation, that I bumped into lately, that unites RIA, SaaS and a glimpse at webOS is that of Gordon Guthrie (Warning! this link will open a ppt for download, if you don’t think this is a good solution please look on Google after presentation Building A REST-based Platform With Erlang And Adobe Flex) from hupernumbers, winners of SeedCamp last year, an idea that unites Flex, Interactive spreadsheets (SaaS on Erlang if you ask me), and if you wish comes prepackage with Linux. The Python alternative from Resolver Systems are not so generous with their idea as to propose an OS for prepackage. It’s only an example, a powerful one where an almost exclusive software thinking, like Excel and the likes goes fully fledged as a complete SaaS solution.
My estimate is that it will take some time, and by that I mean years not decades, until your definition of webOS will become a good subject for sharing ideas.
Ups! It seems that I’ve been pessimistic when I talked about years. It’s on now! PDC2008 and Windows Azure. For more details access Chanel 9 there are some presentations.