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Predicting the Fire Hose? A Sampling of Predictions
2/20/2008
- Mashup alternatives to Wikipedia, including the Knol Project from Google
- Wikipedia-like tools like Twine (www.twine.com) and Freebase (www.freebase.be/)
- Search tools like Hakia (www.hakia.com, in beta) and Powerset (www.powerset.com, under construction)
- Semantic technologies like AdaptiveBlue (www.adaptiveblue.com) and Snap (www.snap.com)
- A Web OS that runs in a browser, perhaps something like YouOS (www.youos.com, in alpha testing)
- Web office space and tools like Zoho (www.zoho.com) and Thinkfree (www.thinkfree.com)
- OpenID as envisioned by the OpenID Foundation (http://openid.net/)
A Web operating system? An accelerated OpenID deployment? Is there actually hope for surviving the fire hose of Web 2.0? And what does all this mean about Web 2.0? Will we reach a tipping point in 2008 or 2009 where the creative burst will be balanced by organizing and managing technologies? Or is Web 2.0 just beginning the growth spurt that will be accelerated by attempts such as the OpenID foundation to create pathways and security? As it's been said before, the emergence of the Web 2.0/3.0 phenomenon will dwarf the impact of Web 1.0 that we've seen over the past fifteen years.
Trent Batson, Ph.D. has served as an English professor, director of academic computing, and has been an IT leader since the mid-1980s. He is currently a Communication Strategist in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at MIT. batsontr@mit.edu
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