- Virtual Applicances - Ever since VMWare releasd its player and server for free, there's been a groundswell of virtual appliances being built. These applications have the entire software stack including the operating system bundled as a VMWare virtual machine. Rather than worry about the complexities of building an installer to conform to an endless list of customer user environments. These virtual machines are pre-optimized disk images of an actually tested envrionment. Installation costs take out a huge chunk of the overall cost of deploying software, take this to zero and you are in good shape to contain your dwindling software margins.
- Virtual Ofice Spaces - With all the Web 2.0 application emerging, add to the mix the more powerful tools available for distributed development and you have a platform that makes it increasingly unnecessary to even maintain an office. Consider for now that talent and resources are spread out all over the world. To remain competitive, one needs to effectively leverage distributed teams. The tools to that are dirt cheap and do expect more people to be spending their work week in their local Starbucks and Kinkos.
- Multimodal Portals/Widgets - So now that we aren't even in the offices, and walking around the park instead, I can't really tell what kind of device I'll be lugging around at any given moment. So when I need to jot down an important thought, work out an urgent task, schedule a new appointment, enjoy some media, I would like that piece of information available to any device that I happened to be carrying. Expect to see more Apps that make it easy to embed themselves in more kinds of portals. Expect to see portals that reside in multi kinds of devices.
- Portable Social Networks - Social networks are really big, MySpace is an example of one that those humongous entities that is bordering on scaring. But let's be real, as these people grow up, the context where they live their lives becomes more varied. It's simply inevitable that one has social networks that are separate from each other. In addition, one interface can't fit all, the structured interfaces of linkedin don't play too well in the chaotic environment of MySpace. These networks are going to be extremely valuable over time, expect a lot of tools devoted to making your social network more portable.
- Participatory Media - Blogging, Flickr and now YouTube. More and more people are sharing their media, from text, to photos and now video. Expect more kinds of media being shared, and expect more mashups/mixins. Expect to see Web 2.0 applications to support this demand. In addition, expect more content originating from your own social circle.
- Voice Enhanced Apps - If you've been in a conversation with a TellMe voice
application you would appreciate how much this field has progressed in the last decade. Let's get real, not everyone can 'text' without looking at their keypad. In fact, a lot of these background widgets that reside on your phone are making driving extremely dangerous. With American spending more and more time on the road, expect more people to use voice as the medium of interaction. There's a good reason why podcasts like ITConversations are so popular. I couldn't figure out why, that's simply because I have a 5 minute commute to work. But for the rest of the world, well reality is, they've got their hand on the wheel and eyes on the road most of the time. - Information Diet Programs - So now that we are bombarded with information and media from all sources and all our social networks, what then will keep us from becoming overloaded? We need applications to better manage how we respond to the constant barrage of information demanding our attention. Although we can always choose to shut it all off, however I suspect we can't. Like any bad habit, we'll need an effective 'diet program' to help manage our intake.
- Peer to Peer Monitoring Systems - As we become dependent on portals, widgets and mashups, essentially distributed applications with multiple owners, something needs to ensure that they all are working together in harmony. The current management and monitoring systems of today are inadequate for the task, too complex to setup and inflexible to maintain. What is needed are more dynamic monitoring systems that can slice through networks.
- Lightweight Non-Ruby Web Frameworks - People want their applications yesterday. Therefore developers need to take the shortest path to a solution. Yes, we all want to become quick, however we want to avoid being dirty. So new web frameworks, taking their queue from Rails, will emerge to provide solutions. See, not everyone can get a gig programming in Ruby. So these frameworks will eschew traditional standard frameworks and focus more on what works and what works quickly (see: rife, trails, grails and trimpath ) at the sametime preserving existing technoloical investment.
- Guilt Reduction Apps - Finally, despite all these attention consuming applications, there is always something that we continue put away for a later day. Procastinating endlessly, in the hope that we have more time in the future to focus on it. Well, over time the guilt builds up, and over time it becomes unbearable. Unlike background applications that are used constantly, these apps are use once applications. Applications that once your done, absolves you of the guilt of not doing it.
Software Development, ECommerce, Web Design
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