[Sigia-l] the future

[Listera]

"odilette 0" asked:

> where do we all think the internet is going?

Internet2? :-)

<http://www.internet2.edu/>

For most of the 500 million people online the Internet is the web. And the
web is the browser. So where's the web browser going?

If you follow the company that controls 90% of the browsers, not very far.
IE/Mac has been dropped, IE/Win has been on resuscitation for a number of
years, is no longer a standalone product and won't be updated until
Longhorn, sometime in 2006. Microsoft wants the browser functionality
regressed into the OS and .NET framework, for its own commercial reasons.
There has been some innovation in browsers other than IE, of course, but
unfortunately their usage is limited and the Eolas patent suit doesn't help.

<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/03/HNmicrosoftsloss_1.html?business>

When Apple introduced the iTunes Store for Windows today, it didn't build
the client-end on its otherwise great Safari or IE browser, but on a
standalone app that's XML driven underneath:

<http://www.apple.com/itunes/>

The world's most popular portable music player, iPod, doesn't use a clumsy
browser-like UI either.

Macromedia is pushing Flash MX into non-browser territory, including the
traditional intranet space:

<http://www.macromedia.com/software/central/>
<http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/flashpro/development/>

The popular TiVo is not browser-based:

<http://www.tivo.com/1.0.demo.asp>

and so on.

I know we must think IA is confined to the web from which it sprang :-) but
if we allow ourselves a fleeting moment of historical freedom and see it as
an integral part of the design process not tied to specific 'deliverables'
of a given format, excitement starts.

Emerging fields such as bioinformatics, security, pattern recognition, data
mining, interactive TV, mobile devices, networked entertainment, RDIF
tracking, etc., are all fertile ground for IA, but they won't necessarily
happen on the Internet or use the HTML/HTTP/browser paradigm.

Only if we can get away from the crazy notion that IA was started on the web
and is inexorably tied to it.

----
Ziya

People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill.
They want a quarter-inch hole.