The Disappearing Desktop - It's Real This Time

[Dan Shafer]

Andre.....

On Nov 10, 2005, at 8:47 AM, Andre Garzia wrote:

> desktop is cheaper and easier to deliver

Once again, your view is limited to what now is rather than to what  
can and will emerge. Software is an ecosystem. Today, if you took  
your blogging tool and made an AJAX version, you might well see  
yourself being forced to create a massive and expensive network/ 
server infrastructure. But you might not. Mirrored sites, a mesh of  
cooperative servers run by a third party supplier, rented space on a  
large server farm with on-demand capacity...there are dozens of  
possible solutions to the problem.

What I'm trying to do here is to get the Rev community to think  
outside the desktop application box into which it fits so neatly  
because it is my considered opinion, based on more than three decades  
of experience in technology assessment and analysis, that the box is  
rapidly disappearing. I don't want us to abandon Rev; I want us to  
figure out new things we can do with Rev -- or get RunRev to add to  
or change about Rev -- that will allow it to play a premier role in  
the changing marketplace.

For a simple example: the best-of-breed AJAX developer's toolkit  
could and perhaps should be written in Rev. Server-side Rev  
componentry to support AJAX would be another great opportunity. There  
are several such large gems lying on the ground waiting for someone  
to pick them up and run with them. This stuff is in its infancy. An  
evolutionary shift in infrastructure is needed. Before its adoption  
by MS and Sun and other Big Players, that kind of change would have  
been difficult if not unthinkable. Their entrance into the  
marketplace makes it inevitable at the same time as it accelerates  
the day of its ubiquity.

All of the arguments that have been advanced here to demonstrate why  
I'm wrong are based on today's reality and even then I don't agree  
with most of them because their viewpoint is necessarily limited to  
the experience of the individual expressing them. But if we raise our  
eyes up to the horizon and look at what can and may well happen to  
facilitate this new wave in software, I think we can -- and I  
certainly do -- conclude that there is not a single insurmountable  
problem out there.

When I discovered Rev and then quickly discovered how minuscule its  
audience was, I was discouraged at the same time I was encouraged. I  
was discouraged because I feared Rev would go the way of so many  
other great technologies whose companies couldn't sustain them  
through slow-growth periods. I no longer worry much about that. I was  
encouraged because if only a small number of people "get" Rev, my  
competitive landscape is uncluttered and accessible. The same is true  
for AJAX except there's no need for a single company to be involved  
in any meaningful way. So if most of you on this list disagree with  
me and go on your merry way, that just means fewer competitors for  
those of us who do jump on the AJAX bandwagon while it is still  
moving slowly enough for us to stake out positions on its top level.




-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Dan Shafer
Technology Visionary - Technology Assessment - Documentation
"Looking at technology from every angle"
http://www.eclecticity.com