Touchstone is ANTI-Web 2.0?
This post on FontShop made me wonder out loud... Is Touchstone a Web 2.0 Project?
First let's define Web 2.0. It's a buzzword. As Frank pointed out to me recently in an email, and I have posted on this blog before, I have a problem with Buzzwords.
My problem is not that I don't like them, but rather I use them too much. I find that they provide a common shorthand that people understand so that we can cut past the ordinary and start discussing the extra-ordinary.
Of course, Buzzwords (by the time their considered Buzzwords) lose their meaning because in the mad rush to jump on the bandwagon, they become so broad that no one actually knows what fits inside the paradigm anymore. It becomes 'me too' and 'Oh that again'.
But that's a tangent about Buzzwords. In reality, Web 2.0 merely describes a current trend to move rich applications from the client-side to the web and to do it in a very grass-roots, social, democratic way.
So, looking at it that way, Touchstone is actually ANTI-Web 2.0. We are on the client-side *shock horror*. How can this be? Even feed-readers are moving to the web - with some achieving almost the exact same interaction model as a local application (good old AJAX).
Why would/should/could the Web 2.0 community, and their users, care about Touchstone?
My personal stance is this. Touchstone is not of the Web 2.0 community, but rather a response to it.
What do I mean? I mean that the very fact that applications are finding themselves moved off the local machine and into the cloud has necessitated the creation of a client-side all-purpose dashboard that allows those 'cloud-based' applications (their not all necessarily exposed as a website maybe?) to alert the user of changes and updates that need attention. As good as cloud-based apps are, they can't do that on their own - AJAX or no AJAX.
Sure there are gadgets, active desktop components (yuck) and email - But I think Touchstone is better than all that stuff. And I am not biased in any way ;)
So, my Web 2.0, Buzzword loving friends - Touchstone is not part of the Web 2.0 world (because it isn't based on the web!) but it sure makes that world a whole lot more interesting and useful.
Reach out and touch your users...
First let's define Web 2.0. It's a buzzword. As Frank pointed out to me recently in an email, and I have posted on this blog before, I have a problem with Buzzwords.
My problem is not that I don't like them, but rather I use them too much. I find that they provide a common shorthand that people understand so that we can cut past the ordinary and start discussing the extra-ordinary.
Of course, Buzzwords (by the time their considered Buzzwords) lose their meaning because in the mad rush to jump on the bandwagon, they become so broad that no one actually knows what fits inside the paradigm anymore. It becomes 'me too' and 'Oh that again'.
But that's a tangent about Buzzwords. In reality, Web 2.0 merely describes a current trend to move rich applications from the client-side to the web and to do it in a very grass-roots, social, democratic way.
So, looking at it that way, Touchstone is actually ANTI-Web 2.0. We are on the client-side *shock horror*. How can this be? Even feed-readers are moving to the web - with some achieving almost the exact same interaction model as a local application (good old AJAX).
Why would/should/could the Web 2.0 community, and their users, care about Touchstone?
My personal stance is this. Touchstone is not of the Web 2.0 community, but rather a response to it.
What do I mean? I mean that the very fact that applications are finding themselves moved off the local machine and into the cloud has necessitated the creation of a client-side all-purpose dashboard that allows those 'cloud-based' applications (their not all necessarily exposed as a website maybe?) to alert the user of changes and updates that need attention. As good as cloud-based apps are, they can't do that on their own - AJAX or no AJAX.
Sure there are gadgets, active desktop components (yuck) and email - But I think Touchstone is better than all that stuff. And I am not biased in any way ;)
So, my Web 2.0, Buzzword loving friends - Touchstone is not part of the Web 2.0 world (because it isn't based on the web!) but it sure makes that world a whole lot more interesting and useful.
Reach out and touch your users...
1 Comments:
I don't think touchstone is ANTI-web 2.0 I but rather exactly what web 2.0 is about... a programmable web where in most cases, RSS or XML is the interface that glues it all together. You guys have definatley come up with an innovative approach though!
Post a Comment
<< Home