[UFO Chicago] "Microsoft is dead"

[Brian Sobolak]

Jordan Bettis wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2007 at 08:38:13PM -0500, Brian Sobolak wrote:
> 
>> is Web 2.0 perhaps more than we
>> think--the potential end of the Microsoft hegemony?  
> 
> Web 2.0 is Everything and Nothing. If something is deemed
> at a certain point in time as being beneficial by the 
> Web 2.0 crowd then it will be considered, at that time,
> and with full benefit of hindsight, part of Web 2.0. 
> 
> Not so? Prove me wrong. Give me a concise and immutable
> definition of Web 2.0, preferably one that does not
> include a host of technologies that predate "Web 1.0."

The definitive technological advance of Web 2.0 is the XMLHttpRequest 
object, which enabled websites to substantially update a webpage without 
requiring a complete reload of a web page.  It is the foundation of many 
sites that wear the "Web 2.0" banner.

The different between "old" Mapquest and "new" Google Maps substantially 
highlights this difference.

Of course Web 2.0 is a sloppy and loosely applied label to a host of 
technologies.  But for me, it is quite a substantial advance over the past.

Simple example:  I weigh myself and track my exercise every day.  In the 
past, this was a problem to make sure that the data (a spreadsheet) was 
sufficiently replicated between the 3-4 computers (FreeBSD, OSX, 
Windows) I use on a regular basis.

I now use a Google spreadsheet to do it.  It works perfectly.  When I 
want to do analysis, I can easily download the data into whatever 
computer I happen to use at the moment.  It's a godsend.

To me, there is something very different about that -- and I'm not going 
to discuss the collaborative possibilities I could enable too.  (c.f. a 
Backpack writeboard <http://www.backpackit.com/>)

Could I edit a spreadsheet online pre "Web 2.0"?  Not that I am aware of.

brian