The Disappearing Desktop - It's Real This Time

[Dave Cragg]

On 10 Nov 2005, at 06:36, Mark Wieder wrote:

> Dan-
>
> Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 4:16:42 PM, you wrote:
>
>> There is no necessary connection between where data is and where the
>> app is. That's just today's temporary model.
>
> That may be true, but according to UNESCO's 3 November report on
> Knowledge versus Information Societies 11 percent of the world's
> population has access to the internet. And that's not talking about
> wired-in broadband connection - this includes dialup and folks who
> simply have access to internet cafes and such.
>
> http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141843e.pdf

But I wonder if the percentage of the world's population who have  
access to a computer is much above the same 11 percent figure. Among  
my own non-computing friends and family members who have or are  
thinking of buying a computer, the "net" is the basic reason they  
need/want one. The point being that we can probably assume that  
computer-access and net-access will come to mean much the same thing.

However, this doesn't mean I support the view that "where the data  
is" is no longer important. That remains to be seen.

Dave