Capping IT Off
The next big thing would be the real time web. Friendfeed introduced a real real time, and Twitter has a real time which you do have to refresh every now and then via their web interface. However both are more realtime than ‘conventional’ sites and they contain a continuous flow of information. A real time web is nice, but how many hours a day do you have the time to gaze at your screen reading all the real time information. And also important: are all those real time events happening in your time zone and are you still awake when they happen?
I think just a very few people will have time to stare at their screen while all the news flows by in real time and since most people sleep approximately eight hours a day, you’ll miss a third of all the real time information (unless you tap in during your sleep). Therefore the real time web is something great, however it will not be used as often as we think or as we would like that it to be. Especially as you are not watching it real time (so you catch up every few minutes) it is not real time.
So the next big thing will be more like the on demand web: real time at the moments you want, available everytime you need it. It fits more in the snack size consumption that has become a trend in the last few years and gives you the possibility to tap in at the moments you want to snack. The pause button on friendfeed is a great example of their understanding of the on the demand web: you cannot do real time viewing all the time, sometimes you need a break. I even think that friendfeed without a pause button would be better: you shouldn’t be afraid to miss something in your information flow by not watching it. If things are really important to will come to you eventually, even when you missed it on forehand, your network will make sure you do not miss a thing, without that you have to gaze at your screen for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The only thing you have to do, is to tap in at the moments you need to and you want to.
Rick Mans is Information Architect and a social media evangelist within Capgemini. You can follow and connect with him via Twitter or Delicious
About the author
Rick is on a day to day basis working on social media (strategy) cases for several (Fortune 500) clients. He lives and loves social media, helping people and enterprises in using social media in a way that adds value for them. He also gives guest lectures at several universities to make students aware of the impact social media will have on their life in general and on enterprises in particular in the near and not so near future. Is he a geek? Well… yes. A geek with a social life though. Even one with a wife and a young son, who’s first English words were ‘Social media’.
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Well said.
Moreover, i think the “pull” mechanism for real-time(or is it “push”?) can increase load on the network way too much. In case of “on demand”, we will get the information that we can digest at a point in time and the traffic is much lesser.
Well said indeed! Some time ago, when he was interviewed by NPR Science Friday, Tim O’Reilly said that he sees Twitter as a river. Taking a dip into that river every now and then during the day can be very refreshing. Following it all the time would be like trying to touch every single drop of water in that river. Depending on how many people you follow, the number of drops adds up pretty quickly!
I agree about that pause button. It isn’t really necessary.
Nice Blog post!
Adding to your thoughts, we’re going to need Event Driven Architecture, and especially Complex Event Processing, to make sense out of all the combined information and events which is coming to us at real time. When will the first MyCEP product come to live?
Rick, think about it.
As far as enterprises are concerned whats the use of twitter or friendfeed to them ? I’ve been trying to understand it all along. Every article I read tries to convince the reader that yes, social media adaptation by companies is a big thing. I still don’t see any merit in this argument.
Twitter, still hasn’t figured out its revenue model, coz’ you know what..it isn’t there ! :)
I know I am sounding like a total skeptic. But however I think, it keeps occurring to me again and again that social media cannot benefit much of the enterprise. At least in the current state.
Hi Harshal, thanks for your comment. Most companies have tons of smart people around, however the fact is, that there are more smart people outside the enterprise than inside. That is one of the uses of social media: get help of the smart(er) people. Another thing you can do with social media is branding and connecting (not only to customers, but also to employees (retention and personal growth)).
This item is not about why enterprises should use social media (I am convinced they should), it is about real time vs on demand (for individuals and it could be even applied to enterprises).
Léon I like the MyCEP idea. Bradley Horowitz described something likewise on The Next Web Conference (although he called it life streaming). His thoughts and concepts could be used for a MyCEP solution. You can read his thoughts in this article I wrote some weeks ago: http://www.capgemini.com/technology-blog/2009/04/the_next_web_googley.php
Kannan,
Interesting remark, as far as I am aware of the original infrastructure for the Internet was not created for streaming information.
Mark,
Nice quote from mr O’Reilly. Thanks!