I read http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/the_great_seduction/2009/04/blogs-are-dead-long-live-blogs.html after seeing this posting of ma.tt: http://ma.tt/2009/04/oracle-and-open-source/.
I think its funny that at least a first step in the mind shift has been made but somehow the architectural vision is only focusing on the front-end. Why does the community not see the complete picture? Is it only me?
I wrote http://edward.de.leau.net/why-the-whole-world-is-wrong-about-weblogs-20081117.html some while ago to explain what is happening, I got some reactions but somehow most reactions missed the central point.
It’s difficult to explain something complex in easy verbs but I will try again in simple terminology:
1. “Computer” and the usage of it are evolving: disconnected, connected. It has a direct impact on our lives. You must look at the big companies to understand where we are heading to. They run ERP software, ECM software, CRM software, HR software, Accounting software and have process frameworks like UP, ITIL, etc… in place behind it. These evolutions merge with the Internet technologies.
2. Home users (every person on earth) are chaotic. They have therefore chaotic computer systems: a browser, an address book, a todo list, a weblog
3. Home users are also evolving by structuring their households with internal infrastructure (software and hardware): home LANs, home fileservers, home WIKI, home mail server, home web server, home synchronized address books
4. The Home Lans of users are integrating with the Company Lans on the Internet since SOAP, XML, web services somehow make this psychologically happen.
Now:
Integration of home and companies (in a two-way supplier demand relation) has direct impact on both in terms of hardware, infrastructure, software solutions AND processes in use at BOTH sides (since they intertwine with the software). Exactly the demand for integration of the many blocks within a business with a regular household will drive the next transformation meaning not only hardware and software but especially processes.
What are currently the most used integration (and NOT aggregation that is only a little part of the integration) software products in use by “homes” to enable it do these future tasks? Weblogs.
I can expand on this greatly. It just means that various software products running within an household will not only be “entertainment like x-box or mp3 server” they will get real process functionality which are tied to the goals of every household exactly like has happened in the bigger companies.
The most important software in a household in let’s say 10 years will NOT be “the iTunes server” or “the Xbox”, it will be the system which manages their finance, their contacts, their integration with companies, their lifes. Real functional useful software and hardware, exactly as in companies. There will be a “default best practices” process framework for households e.g. householdframework.org.
And in this moment in time, weblog software provides the best solution incl. their API’s, HTTP Requests interfaces, plugin structure, database integration to make that connection between the inside world and the outside world. There will be a blog in the inside and a blog on the outside and the interface between the two defines what is considered “within a household” and “outside a household”, which absolutely includes somewhere the social things.
Exactly that interface between the two will become the next big interesting thing. If you look around you see many companies making many custom integrations with households in terms of processes (paper letters, E-CRM, e-government, bills in PDF format, personal portals, helpdesk software), software and hardware. The standardization of this will lead to this. And standardization will be the next big thing since we are integrating everything with everything.
That standardization will lead to a new kind of improved household.