Cloud Computing & Online Collaboration at the Web 2.0 Expo
The Web 2.0 Expo took place this week at the Javits Center in New York City, organized by the O’Reilly Media Group and TechWeb, with a huge list of corporate sponsors, including Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, eBay, Wired, and Sun Microsystems. The gathering brought together business executives, web designers, programmers, developers, new media entrepreneurs, online marketers, start-up groups, and venture capitalists to discuss the latest internet trends. As expected, most delegates were focused on the keynote address by Tim O’Reilly, with the hope of receiving some insight into the future development patterns in Information Technology.
According to David Berlind at Information Week, who live-blogged Tim O’Reilly’s keynote address at the Web 2.0 summit, the tech guru stated that “the next wave of Web 2.0 is all about sensors and ambient computing (the kind of computing that happens on our behalf while we’re away from our desks).” After looking to the future, O’Reilly had some harsh words of criticism about the status quo, obviously affected by the meltdown taking place on Wall St. while he spoke. He criticized people who are wasting their time on nonsensical and inane applications like the Facebook application designed “to allow you to throw sheep at your friends” or the iPhone app that simulates “chugging a beer”. Summarizing this trend, he stated1:
“(These are) pretty depressing times in a lot of ways, and you have to conclude, if you look at the focus of a lot of what you call ‘Web 2.0,’ the relentless focus on advertising-based consumer models, lightweight applications, we may be living in somewhat of a bubble, and I’m not talking about an investment bubble. (It’s) a reality bubble.”
As the internet and Web 2.0 standards represent amazing advances in science and technology, O’Reilly suggests, developers should be working on truly meaningful applications that have the opportunity to really change the world for the better. We can only hope that this becomes one of the distinguishing characteristics of Web 2.0 in the future.
Cloud Computing & Online Collaboration:
Outside of the keynote address, many of the major new developments being announced at the event this year highlighted cloud computing and online collaboration. Moderro Technologies previewed the launch of the Xpack Web 2.0 Cloud Computer, a sleek desktop unit that is designed to push the use of remote-hosted web applications. Priced at only $395, the scaled down hardware is essentially mounted onto the LCD display, using a “Smart Application Launcher” to run office productivity software from the internet rather than the local hard drive. Also related to cloud computing and “Platform as a Service” (PaaS), Morph Labs unveiled their new Morph AppCloud environment that allows users to easily customize the software services that they need by dragging and dropping the icons of Open Source applications to create a work environment. The platform provides an opportunity for third party developers to upload their software to the site, giving users a wide range of services and programs to choose from, and uses the “widget” model to allow them to build their own unique productivity suites. Morph Cloud uses Amazon’s EC2 and S3 cloud computing hardware to power their system, and looks like a promising example of what to expect in the next generation of web services.
Site9 and Octopz were the stars presenting innovations in online collaboration at this year’s meeting. ProtoShare 2.0, launched by Site9, is geared towards enhancing “real-time collaboration on enterprise web development.” Extending Agile methods to the remote workplace, fostering improved communication, documentation, and feedback, while allowing team members to participate in multiple development projects simultaneously, it sounds a lot like a private oDesk for programming teams. Octopz also announced a new collaboration software package at the conference based on the SaS and cloud computing model:
“It enables up to five people to synchronously view and markup an unprecedented range of documents including digital media – such as video and 3D – and to communicate via built-in text, voice and video chat capabilities. Octopz uses intuitive navigation and tool icons, requires nothing more than a Flash-enabled web browser, and uses integrated SSL encryption to ensure security. In addition, Octopz can be integrated (via API, web services and Flash) with existing applications.”
Source: http://www.octopz.com/buzz/press-releases/index.cfm?i=675&y=2008
While this may not sound like much more than most people are already doing with Google Documents, Yahoo! Messenger, GotoWebinar, or WebEx, it is clear that there is a massive market for platforms that enable more efficient online collaboration, and this is following advances in outsourcing in the global marketplace.
For more information on the Web 2.0 Expo in New York, visit their website at:
http://en.oreilly.com/webexny2008/public/content/home
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[...] Jeffrey Scott of Typehost wrote a fantastic post today on “Cloud Computing & Online Collaboration at the Web 2.0 Expo”Here’s ONLY a quick extractHe criticized people who are wasting their time on nonsensical and inane applications like the Facebook application designed “to allow you to throw sheep at your friends” or the iPhone app that simulates “chugging a beer”. … [...]
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Hi, Thank you for the information, The Web 2.0 Expo is very exiten.