Reflections on Web 2.0

The success of any cutting-edge technological innovation can be measured by its adaptability it offers to the common man. In his famous book ‘Crossing the chasm’, author Geoffrey Moore calls this critical mass (the common man) as ‘pragmatists’ and they play a critical role in the success of any innovation. Conversely, when any new technology is hyped beyond certain level it is bound to hit the ground very badly. Nobody can forget the dotcom hype in the early 90s followed by the bubble burst in 2000-01. Fuelled by a bunch of startups, it was believed that anything and everything can be brought into the Internet and customers will start flocking into it. But by the end of the burst, only handful of those startups (like Google, Yahoo etc...) were able to survive mainly because they had products (rather online services) which made sense to a common man.

Last week I was reading the official whitepaper about Web 2.0 by Tim O'Reilly and found it pretty interesting. It mainly highlights how Web 2.0 is different from the initial Web 1.0. One of the main attributes of the Web 2.0 is its interactive nature. Unlike the previous version, where the contents are hosted by the service provider, in the 2.0 world, the end user becomes the creator of the content. This is very significant because, it inspires empowerment of the common man. Users of Web 2.0 can express their views about varied topics and share them in the form of a blog post or a wiki page over the Internet that connects millions world over. By creating such a platform for expressing individuals’ thoughts the Web 2.0 has truly emerged as a very strong platform for human expression.

Another main attribute of Web 2.0, is the ‘software-as-a-service’ (SAAS) model, where the user can access any application software from the internet without having it installed in the computer. More commonly used applications (like spreadsheets) are available online (Google spreadsheets), which can be edited by individuals or as a group. Thanks to high bandwidth, last mile technologies like DSL, the internet speed has increased tremendously and the prices have dropped sharply. For example, in the year 2001, I used to pay INR 250 (for the internet service provider) plus telephone charges to access a 56 Kbps internet. Now in 2007, speed upto 2 Mbps is available at the same price without any additional telephone charges. This has indeed set the stage for SAAS based model and Web 2.0.

At the same time, I have my own doubts about heavyweight applications being made available over the Internet using SAAS. For example -- recently I came across Nivio, which is an online version of Windows. By subscribing to this service (by paying $12.99 per month) it will provide 5 GB storage space with some pre-defined applications over the web. The main idea of accessing PC from everywhere looks interesting at the first sight and looks technically ‘cool’ as far as the geeks are concerned. But does it make sense for a common man? Ever falling hardware prices and free software (like Open source) have already made computing very affordable. So, if the user wants to store some data in the Internet, the online storage has become free of cost, hence providing a one stop shop for all stored and processed user defined data.

I have registered for the free trial version of Nivio and am yet to receive the login information. But when I look at products like these, they seem to be re-creating the web 1.0 days, in my opinion. I am willing to wait and watch the success or otherwise of such products no matter how skeptical I may feel about them at the moment.

"Personal Security" - What does it imply now ?

There was a time when security at the personal technology level meant keeping the virus invaders at bay. This usually meant that you buy some antivirus package (NAV being my favorite) and hope that takes care of things. The more conservative kept backup and maybe now we assume that life is fine.

However, the interactive nature of personal media/IT usage implies it is beginning to mirror our real life interactions with people. So, just like we tell ourselves to be careful with strangers, so too does it apply to unsolicitied chat messages etc. Just like we tell children not to mingle with foul mouthed friends, so too has that need come with games/movies etc.

A great post on this can be got at http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Towards_a_Safer_Internet_for_Children/551-81694-643.html

You probably can guess now that IT/Tech oriented security is a far greater threat than the virus now and is no longer concerned with just the computer.

I am hoping that soon there will be secure hardware scramblers for foul language builtin within a TV or a DVD player. Maybe even auto scramblers for porno images/videos/chat messages/sms messages.

I do think that Internet Service Providers, TV Broadcasters, Cable TV and other such Media Distribution Companies have a part to play and in fact, can give this as a value-added paid service. I know I will be willing to pay for it.

Keep safe !!

Network Bandwidth in a Company Infrastructure

Many areas in technology consists of cycles.

When for example, we want to host more web servers etc, we in turn want more powerful chips to host the traffic load and in turn want the telecom providers to provide for more fiber.

If then, the traffic load comes down because the expected usage of the web servers is not there, what happens to the telecom provider who has provided fiber. I guess there is revenue loss.

The same thing applies to a data center such as the networking within a company where we want faster LANs for applications hosted inside the company.

The reason i am saying this is that i believe that the IT industry has yet again come to a juncture where adding more networking capacity blindly within a company is going to result in wastage. Companies just do not need more networking bandwidth but due to the large growth of employees especially in places like India, they probably need more computing power and better applications which in turn needs to drive the bandwidth.

You may well ask, but "does not more people imply more bandwidth" ? That depends on the type of usage. Applications in companies are more data driven (as against multimedia) and interactive which are not bandwidth intensive but needs more data processing capabilities.

How does this affect the common guy ? Well, if you are the network infrastructure administrator of your company, my guess is you will begin to need very good reasons to ask for more budget to enlarge bandwidth capacity.