August 1st, 2005
Web 2.0 as the Era of Interfaces
by Joshua Porter | 
9 Comments | shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/159
You know you have trouble when people start calling something a “buzzword” and a lot of folks have been calling “Web 2.0″ a buzzword lately. I don’t think it is one, or rather I think that what it refers to is a real thing. If we end up calling it something else, that’s fine, but I believe that we’re seeing a huge shift right now: to the Era of Interfaces. (which may or may not be a buzzword in itself).
In this Era of Interfaces:
- There are two kinds of interfaces: interaction interfaces and programming interfaces
- The Interface is where Innovation Finds Value
- Attention is scarce, and therefore highly valuable
- There is a tension between centralizing knowledge and decentralizing knowledge
- Attention is not Automation
- People have little time to learn
- Fast Clarity is crucial
- Your Interface is your product
- You need to give up control in order to keep it
Those are a few of my posts dealing with this “era of interfaces”. Many more folks are writing about these sorts of issues, and I’m really glad about that. Just yesterday Richard MacManus wrote: Defining Web 2.0: The Community Way, which adds nicely to the conversation.
Buzzword, or not? | Bokardo Interface
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Comments
1. bill h-d 12:15pm, Tue 2nd, 2005
Sounds like somebody ought to write a book…
2. Noah Brier 5:52pm, Tue 2nd, 2005
I admit that I have not read all your interface posts (please forgive me), but reading this immediately made me ask one question: Is it really an era of interfaces or is it an era of interface awareness? Maybe you’ve answered it elsewhere, but interfaces have existed for ages, we’ve just normally been content to let them fade to the background. What’s the big difference now? (Like I said, just smack me in the face with the appropriate link and tell me to shutup if the answer’s as easy as that.)
3. Josh 6:33pm, Tue 2nd, 2005
Noah, excellent question. I would definitely agree that whatever we are in has caused us to have more awareness of interfaces than before. In fact, awareness might be how you could define an era: what are people aware of? If it is interfaces, then we might be in an era of interfaces. You may have gotten close to what an era truly is…
We’ve had iron since the Iron Age, but there was only one Iron Age: a period of intense development when iron was the center of attention…perhaps we’re in an analogous age or era with interfaces.
Also, there was a tremendous amount of work done in the interface arena back in the 80’s during the PC revolution. I would say that the era we’re currently in is different from that because now we’ve added public programming interfaces, which allow for shared data, and thus allow interaction interfaces built on top of them that anybody can use. Quite a startling difference, I think, and that’s why I used “era of interfaces” to describe today’s environment.
4. Noah Brier 9:01am, Wed 3rd, 2005
I’m not sure that an era is defined by awareness, I think an era is typically defined by the tool which makes the largest impact. It’s quite possible that with the massive amounts of data floating around and the ubiquitousness of digital technology that the digital interface could become the defining tool of a generation. On the other hand, mobile technology (the real stuff, not the laptops of today) may be a serious threat to the era title. Although interfaces may play a more important part than the tools (you could argue that for almost any age probably), mobile technology could end up overshadowing it in the future.
Thanks for insighting some thinking, Josh. I like this stuff. Also, have you read Steven Johnson’s Interface Culture?
5. Josh 9:41am, Wed 3rd, 2005
I’ll buy the biggest impact notion, if you like. I’m not sure there is a big distinction between awareness and impact…over time.
By mobile technology you are including mobile interfaces, which I would argue are only widely enabled by having both kinds of interfaces that we’re seeing now: interaction and programming interfaces.
In the past, it was possible to do this stuff with proprietary technology. For example, a company could have made a soup-to-nuts tool that included a mobile interface. I argue, or am beginning to get my thoughts around, the significant difference that occurs when these things are open, so that anybody can create interfaces to any kind of content to be delivered anywhere.
The fact that I could soon find a house to buy while cruising the streets by simply looking up Housingmaps.com via my cell phone is rather mind blowing…
BTW: I’m reading Interface Culture right now, in fact, thanks in no small part to your recent post on it. Perhaps I’ll catch up to you soon.