The Web 2.0 juggernaut: Two notes of caution
Steve Borsch posts a list of 907 Web 2.0 links 
and ponders what he considers a central problem of the web 2.0 phenomenon:
I can’t even get through a list of 907 links like this one…let alone decide upon who will survive and be worthy of my attention…. which of the collaboration sites can I either use or recommend to clients (e.g., Basecamp, Foldera, Joyent, Rallypoint, ProjectSpaces, StikiPad, et al) will still be with us a year or two from now?
Bouncing off that post, Working Pathways suggests that the lack of integration between Web 2.0 services and users’ computers is another weakness:
Some client-level integration with the customer’s machine increases productivity, usability, and usefulness. I’ve just signed up with Joyent and was disappointed to find out I couldn’t connect their calendar, email, address book, and files to my local versions.
The support costs are therefore cheaper for Web 2.0 companies, he argues, but this lack of integration leaves him exposed to server downtimes and the inability to get at his data without an Internet connection.
He uses Mail.app and NetNewsWire instead of the hosted versions for just this reason.
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Tags: Apple Mail, basecamp, Foldera, Internet, joyent, links, mail.app, Productivity, Rallypoint, web 2.0
March 6th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I’m not familiar with Joyent but this caught my attention:
The Zimbra Apple iSync Beta was just announced. And Agile Digital is using Zimbra.
April 20th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Tim,
Those two points are very valid considerations – (1) vendor viability, is very important when your data is hosted away from your own machine and infrastructure, and (2) integration with native desktop clients or access when disconnected is also a top of mind question for many.
You can be sure that we at Foldera are very aware of both of those concerns, and are seeking how to make the best decision on both counts.
I hope we can talk some more.
Kind regards,
Michael Sampson
Global VP of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Foldera, Inc.
P.S. One final thought: in defense of Joyent’s lack of integration, and also in consideration of other innovators in this space, there is a real problem when you innovate beyond what standard native desktop clients can offer. For example, the big idea of Joyent is tagging of items irrespective of content type (eg, email, calendar, to do), and then the accumulation of those into a shareable tag set amongst a group of people. Neither Outlook nor Apple Mail (which I have used for 3 years and really love) can support these constructs. And there are similar things in the Foldera offering that means that clean integration into desktop clients is difficult. What do you think of that?