[irq]: techie interrupted

the web in twenty

Stu tagged me to answer these questions:

* How has the Web changed your life?
* How has the Web changed business and society?
* What do you think the Web will look like in 20 years?

Ok, but 1. I don’t think I have anything interesting/unique to say and 2. we’re all wrong about what it’ll look like in 20 years.

How has the Web changed my life?

It’s strange to talk about the web as if it is the internet. I grew up in the late 80’s through the 90’s along with the emergence of the web as the dominant realm of the net. When I first connected, it was all about email, usenet, irc, and bbs’s. Web was an afterthought. Overnight, pretty much, it become the primary interface to the net.. then, the primary platform.

It’s the platform part that has impacted us most. My life is enriched by unprecedented access to commerce (amazon! threadless! zappos!), content (youtube! hulu! gutenberg!), people (facebook! twitter! linkedin!), and publishing platforms (blogs! twitter! tumblr!). The last two have mattered most.

How has the Web changed business and society?

First off, we’re not talking about all businesses or all societies–really only a minority of either that are the majority in most of our spheres. There are plenty of people who could use some very simple, basic necessities that the web can’t supply.

So business and society: web as platform for connecting, producing, publishing, consuming, and trading our values. It’s like a lever for all of those verbs with a positive multiplier effect on the reach of every business, person, org.. and a negative multiplier on the cost of achieving that reach.

The web has created a whole field of startups that require next-to-nothing to get going. It’s given a whole slew of people who would’ve once just been some variety of company (wo)men an alternative.

It has created a way to organize and collaborate that’s enabled everyone (good, bad, ugly, everything in between) to come together with others along whatever lines, for whatever reasons, with however much anonymity, for however long, on whoever’s terms, for anywhatkind of thing.

What do I think the Web will look like in 20 years?

- it’ll remain a platform with immense multiplier effects
- web/desktop/here/there/os/app/interface lines will only exist to the technology plumbers and enthusiasts [most def wrong about this one.. all the various warring companies, bodies, regulators, etc., will make sure of it]
- more embedded and ambient devices for us, creating new interaction points
- more ambient triggers for them, sensors and sensing entering the mainstream
- touch and voice as natural interfaces, negligible learning curve
- physically responsive interfaces exit labs and enter the real world
- consolidated virtual identities for anyone who wants one
- it won’t solve poverty
- it won’t solve despots/theocracies/totalitarianism/etc
- it won’t solve disease
- it won’t solve people hell bent on destroying other people
- it won’t solve exuberant-irrationalism

—
I’m tagging..

Tessa Lau, an IBM researcher who deals with how end users deal with the web. She doesn’t have a public blog (that I know of) but hopefully will take it up and write us a little paper or publish it here.

James Governor, an industry analyst who deals with the aforementioned plumbers and enthusiasts.

Vishy Venugopalan, an analyst for VC investing in cloudy webby stuff, who has a blog but barely uses it.

And last but not least (at all), Luis Suarez, a social software guy at IBM who’s been trying to kill off email for years. Luis is also most likely to actually write something.