Comments on: Trends to Watch in 2006 – Part 2

By: WHOLLYDEV | 2006 trends and web apps failure

WHOLLYDEV | 2006 trends and web apps failure — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:33:00 +0000

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By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 03:00:08 +0000

Charlie, sounds like you’re working on something…and thanks for pointing out that there is a huge need for syncing disparate systems. That’s a big opportunity for innovation, I’m sure.

By: Charlie Wood

Charlie Wood — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 12:34:39 +0000

I think you’re exactly right in identifying synchronization as a key trend of future applications. It’s easier to envision these apps if you think about them simply as “online” application instead of “web” applications. (iCal, Outlook, Notes, and other mail clients are great examples–as are desktop RSS aggregators like NetNewsWire and FeedDemon.)

Ultimately I believe we’ll see a new class of client software emerge, which Adam Bosworth has called a Web Services Browser. It will be able to perform sync operations on an endlessly extsible number of data types, including events, articles, medical records… whatever. Outlook 12 is headed in this direction with its RSS, SLX, and SSE support.

Finally (man, this comment is getting long!) keep in mind that sync is for more than offline access to online data. It’s also for information sharing between disparate systems. If you keep your events in iCal, I keep mine in Salesforce.com (I do!), and our company’s corporate standard is Exchange, it sure would be nice to have a sync agent in the middle that could keep everything, uh, in sync. Look for this kind of functionality very soon.

Cheers,
Charlie

By: jasbell

jasbell — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:07:48 +0000

Here is a thought (and call me a Ludite)…there is a limit to the amount of things one can do/schedule/organize per day. We are at that limit right now, and evidence of this is the quantity of time we spend on line vs. the quantity of time we spend with each other. I think things will move in reverse when this becomes apparent to all, as people revalue the time they spend together personally, and as major scheduling challenges overwhelm people to the point that noone cares about anything more than a month in advance anyway.

By: Tom Patik

Tom Patik — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 16:59:32 +0000

SSE = RSSCalendar.com

By: John Labriola

John Labriola — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:06:22 +0000

Well here’s a contradictory statement for ya, I know you’re right, but yet I hope you’re right.

Yes I think we we definitely see a big growth in synchronization. The idea of a separate home, school, and work environment is becoming blurrier by the day. We should be able to take our data wherever we go seemlessly (whether online or offline).

Here’s the catch I foresee: Cooperation. I hope that competing companies and align themselves to allow cross synchronization to occur. You see some evidence of this (you mentioned Mozilla and Apple working together).

It will be interesting as to where this goes by the end of 2006. I’m one hoping that at the end of the year, you are citing this entry saying you called it.