Fundamentals of Web 2.6

So what are the fundamental principles of designing for Web 2.6 (2point6)?

1. Minimalism. Just what is asked for, nothing more nothing less. Less really IS more.

2. Mobility. Works across platforms, hardware.

3. Monetization. Everyone who contributes receives a cut.

4. Membership. Has a mechanism for visitors to 'belong."

5. Matters. Is significant to one or more of it's members.

6. Merges. It works and plays with other sites, simply.

7. Manufactures. It creates something rather than just regurgitates what is already out there.

8. Is part of or has a Manual. It comes with (or is) instructions.

Okay I didn't mean to do it all with "M" words but I got on a roll. I stifled the urge to add "Monkeys" and "Monogamy" but just barely. The point is a Web 2.6 site is an interface between a group that manages or manifest some of their interests or concerns.

Announcing Web 2.6 (2point6)

So after researching Web 2.5 we really are past that. It had a few proponents that advocated it as a social enterprise and an always-on-you web. Which is accurate to a degree. But I think we moved maybe one notch past it - so I'm declaring Web 2.6 as the new web.

Web 2.6 is still always-on-you, but it is also always on us. It is more connected to the world wide world and less about being a place you go to and more about finding a place to go. It is less about information and more about directions. It is your electric newspaper that morphs in real time to your interests via your input.

It will be for a select few however, as most folks won't get 2.6 - they will be stuck in 1.0, or 2.0.

Web 3.0 is on it's way. It's the fusion of 3D virtual reality with 3D real reality and you navigate and engage in it in ways that are only hinted at in virtual worlds like Second Life. But that is still a ways away.

In Web 2.6 only a few "get it." Microsoft doesn't. They are busy trying to copy Flash with Silverlight and there is no Flash in 2.6. Web 2.6 is distinctively retro codewise because the browser is limited to react to touch. It is simpler and easier to use. In fact 2.6 retains 2.0's focus on making things simpler and easier to deal with.

It won't be about shoving things down our throats but rather us choosing just what we want. Communication will be faster and less far. Web 2.6 will also focus on building infrastructure at the social and community level that prevents large companies from aggregating content and selecting what we can and can't see at high speed.

Web 2.6 represents a deeper integration of the WWW into IRL. I'll be blogging more about 2.6 (2point6) in the next few days.

Web 2.5 - the web that catches stuff

I thought I was going to write a pithy original post about inventing web 2.5 but I'm late to the party. Sigh.

My Web 2.5 was dubbed so because it's one step forward (Web 3.0) and one half step back. The step forward is the portable, always available Internet. The half step back is the compromises we make to code to make 2.5 work. The trade is way more than fair.

I'm basing the trade-offs on designing pages for the Apple iPhone. You can read the official guidelines here.  Some more interesting comments are here. The upshot is you no longer design for mice but for the human touch (which also makes a nice metaphor). The phone also doesn't support Flash, so you are looking at taking your pages back a bit but not all the way back.

Perhaps the best summary of the experience is here. I know many of you will grouse at the iPhone being a pivotal piece of hardware since there are already so many web connected phones out there. To that I only have one word to say: Macintosh.

If you aren't having intense Deja Vu over the iPhone then you weren't a geek in 1984 (yeah I was). It's the same thing all over. It's SO expensive, it's only Black and White, there are hundreds of CPM and MS-DOS machines out there. Okay right. But how many computers are there out there now that weren't influenced by the Mac interface? Virtually zero.

So Web 2.5 naysayers will be plentiful. In fact they are a vital part of the viral process. But the reality is, if you haven't retooled to design for Web 2.5 - you will.

Also, Web 2.5 will connect us in ways that will make commerce not just simple but intelligent. Consensus marketing will become a norm with the savvy marketer able to attract a "flash" mob (or a "hit" crowd) in minutes.

There are a few barriers to entry at this point:

1) SMS is too #@#@#% expensive. $40 a month for unlimited text seems like gouging. Carriers need to consider the economic impact of dropping this to $20 a month. The new signups alone would offset the price drop.

2) Hardware is pricey too. Even at $399, the iPhone is out of reach for a lot of folks that have money to spend. The value is there honestly but there are too many phones that claim to do the same thing at the $199 and less price point. Just the same God bless the early adopters for they shall change the world.

3) Designers won't want to go back. It's not about learning new tricks as much as it is re-learning old tricks. Blow the dust off that copy of Fireworks and put the Flash back on the shelf.

Web 2.5 won't be about scalability - it will be about sustainability. It will not be about having 7 million "friends" as much as it will be about having 7 (or 70) IRL friends with genuine interests and viable ways to asynchronously communicate "what's up?" It will be about team building more than stardom.

It's going to be very very cool.

My next car

Okay here's what I want to drive to work. Runs on sun.

iPhone: "It's like the picture"

I've only had my iPhone a week so I hardly know everything it does (but I'm close). Yesterday I needed to do some banking for Mrs. Xackr - who is out of town - and I needed to know where the closest branch was. Hmmm, iPhone. I opened up maps and typed in the name of the bank and the zip code in search under maps. The map came up with little push pins sticking in it. I clicked the one I was interested in and the name popped up with a link to more info. I clicked the link and all the details from the branch popped up. The phone number was there already in the form of a button. Pressed it - and next thing you know I was talking to the bank.

"What time do you close today?"

"5:30"

"Cool"

I hung up. That was too freaking easy. It was actually easier than I ever thought it would be, and much easier than it's Windows counterpart that I owned -  the Blackjack. I was so excited that I had actually easily used a new piece of technology without posting a message in a forum somewhere I called Mrs. Xackr to tell her.

I recanted the experience.

"It was like the picture" she said.

"Huh?"

Then I remembered. One of my pet peeves is the difference between the picture and the product. For example go to your favorite hamburger joint sometime. Look at the hamburger on the wall in the picture. Order that. Unwrap it. Go hold it up to the picture. Enhhh.

But the iPhone actually lived up to the TV commercial. Actually exceeded it because I didn't know you could just press a button to connect to the pushpin. Too cool.

iPhone ToDo list problem solved

One app missing from the iPhone is the todo list. Okay a todo list is actually flawed because everyone should actually have a "schedule" but I like to keep a "grasscatcher" list and a daily list. Was easy enough to fix - tadalist at tadalist.com works perfectly on the iPhone and gives you the missing functionality and is completely FREE.

iPhone, you phone, we all phone

Okay, after the $200 price drop, I caved and bought an iPhone. I'd been wanting one since trying one in the AT&T store a while back. At first I thought the phone was overhyped but after using it for about 20 minutes, I realized I was holding the tech equivalent of "nature's perfect food." Steve and his Apple geniuses have smashed competition with this nearly flawless convergent device.

I had been using a Samsung Blackjack previously and it was good for texting and as a phone but the web browser which is the heartbeat of the world now - was crap. It would just lock up for no reason. Loading was painfully slow and navigating was virtually impossible. Pages designed for the mobile platform were BORING. So I kept using it because it was better than nothing but not by a whole lot.

The iPhone is  different beast. The screen is beautiful, the web is - well - the web. It taps into my wifi in my home when I'm at home and so it is lightning fast. I have yet to try it in the wild (I believe some of my Blackjack problems were the "Edge" network).

So I am enthused about the possibility that this device will "liberate" me from being a laptop lugger and allow me to mobilize my life yet remain connected to the rest of most of the world.