Web 2.0
People are talking about “Web 2.0”. There’s plenty of debate about what exactly it encompasses. All I can say is that I think it’s primarily about having your information freed from any single system or physical application. It’s about information anywhere with ease of use rivaling or better than a traditional app.
At home I use a variety of systems, depending on what I’m doing and where, physically, I am in the house. For example:
- In my bedroom (yes, my bedroom… long story… the basement office isn’t done yet) I have a Mac and a PC
- At the kitchen table on the main floor I have a Janice’s Windows laptop
- When Janice is using her laptop, I can use Christopher’s PC in the playroom if he’s not using it (rare)
- In the basement I have a Windows 2003 server that I access via Remote Desktop
- In the basement I have a FreeBSD 5.4 server that I access via SSH and remotely via the web.
- At work and home I have a Tablet PC
- I have a Samsung i700 Pocket PC phone with Internet access
The dream scenario was supposed to be that I put everything on my Tablet PC / laptop and use that for everything. The problem is, I don’t always have the laptop around — say at lunch-time, when the battery is re-charging (or like, never because I hate my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC), but I still want access to my information. The dream scenario before the tablet was supposed to be that I accessed everthing via the web. Problem was, the web sucked for apps.
Now with the rise of some new technologies that make web apps much more friendly (a.k.a. Web 2.0, AJAX, etc.) I’m finally moving toward the true dream of information anywhere.
Here is an example of some “Web 2.0” applications that I”m using to supplant applications that tie me to a particular computer or operating system:
Gmail - Replaces Outlook for all my non work-related email.
Backpack / Tracks - Both are web apps written in Ruby on Rails. Backpack is a hosted app — a great place to take general notes and share pages with other users. I can also access it on my Pocket PC phone. Tracks is a “Getting Things Done” task manager that’s installed on my FreeBSD server so I can access it from anywhere. The only thing it’s missing is the ability to email myself a task, but I’ll add it myself if the devs don’t scratch it off their own todo list soon. Both replace Outlook for tracking tasks.
Instiki - Another Ruby on Rails app. This one is a wiki that I use as a general catch-all notebook. Wikis are a great way to manage a pile of ad-hoc information. It has supplanted OneNote as my catch-all organizer and is installed on my FreeBSD server.
Subversion - I use this to keep track of all my programming code and various shell scripts that I use for backup, etc. I have it front-ended by Apache on my FreeBSD server and available remotely over the Internet.
Trac - I use this to track development of various projects. It includes a wiki, web-based subversion repository, and ticket tracking system.
BlogLines - This is a web-based RSS aggregator. It replaced Newsgator in Outlook. Now I only have one place to keep my RSS feeds in sync. I can even read my feeds on my Pocket PC through the mobile version.
Flickr - I use this to manage my photo collection. Replaces Picasa, iPhoto, etc.
Delicious - One place to store all my bookmarks. Replaces Firefox / Internet Explorer bookmarks (as if I ever actually used them).
Grocs - This is my own home-grown Ruby on Rails app that I use to manage my shopping list. I can access it via the web from anywhere, and I can email items directly to the list. Rails makes it super-easy to create AJAX web apps with email integration. Janice can access it as well, and since she’s the primary grocery-getter she can simply print off the list at any time and I don’t have to bother her with my requests.
Of course, I access all of these using Firefox with a complement of plugins. Maybe I’ll post that list some day soon.
That’s my list so far, but I’m sure I’ll be adding more over time. Let me know if you have any recommendations.
On another note, I did figure out how to get drag and drop to work, and open up more options in the application. There's a silly looking icon in the top right corner of iTunes that my aesthetically-impaired eyes just automatically ignored. It happens to say "Browse" under the silly eye icon. Turns out that clicking that opens up the functionality I wanted in the app. I think my brain is wired to ignore eye candy and look for the meat. I wouldn't have thought of clicking that image in a million years. Our Mac guy pointed it out, and admitted that even he stumbled on that. Maybe that's why I find the Mac so frustrating to use.


