The Web 2.0 Revolution, by Carte Blanche

Transcripts of a TV program produced by Barbara Folsher, aired on 2 March 2008, presented by John Webb, compliments of M-Net:

Rafiq Philips: "There's always someone up. That's the cool thing, there's always company online. Usually at night I say, 'Hi, who's awake?' You get responses, one from London, one from California, one from Florida. My phone basically lives next to my bed and when I wake up the first thing I usually do, before I go to the toilet, is check my mail. If there's anything urgent that needs to be handled. The next thing would be to greet the people, on Twitter or on Google Talk, and say good morning to friends and co-workers. I'm always connected, always."

John Webb (Carte Blanche presenter): "Rafiq Philips, on the face of it, an ordinary young man living on an ordinary street in Cape Town. But that's in the world that we see. In the parallel universe of cyberspace, Rafiq is known as a guru, and his habits point to a fundamental change in society. Rafiq is one of the drivers of the Web 2.0 Revolution. But what exactly is this revolution that is gaining force all around us?"

Web 2.0 sees the Internet as a platform for interaction and social networking. Anyone with an Internet connection can now be a publisher, a journalist or an advertiser. The phenomenal rise of networks such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace gives anybody a potential audience of millions. Some say the change to our society is as fundamental as the invention of the printing press. To Rafiq online communication has become more natural than talking.

Rafiq: "It's continuous, it's always happening. Someone is always asking you a question or asking you to send them an email. You're always communicating. It's not just like stuck in work and sealed off from the rest of it because you're always connected. In the office here, if you need anything, like let's go for lunch, you send them a message."

John: "And you don't find it strange that you don't actually get up and walk across the room to talk to somebody."

Rafiq: "Strange, how strange? That's the only way I've been doing it, ever. I don't know any other way."

Today he invites two colleagues to meet at a café with free Internet access. Hours later the meeting takes place, partly face-to-face, partly via laptops and cellphones. Rafiq has his own online business, writes a successful blog and works at an e-marketing company. He has won several awards for his work.

Rafiq: "I help clients or companies to be found on search engines for the products they offer."

In a world where over 6 000 Google searches are performed every second, that's a useful skill to have. In true Web 2.0 style, Rafiq posts a photograph of the meeting on the Web, friends respond, business contacts contribute and so it continues.

But what has this done to the 'old world', to traditional sources of news and communication? Some say today's seven-year-olds will never read a printed newspaper.

The country's largest media company, Naspers, is changing radically to adapt to the market. Arrie Rossouw, a former newspaper editor, has made the switch to digital.

Arrie Rossouw (Editorial Director: MHI Digital Africa): "The user is in control, more than ever before. They actually decide what they want to read, when they want to read it, how they want to consume media content."

Rafiq: "The news I want comes to me, I don't want to know about people taking showers. There's specific news that I'm interested in. When I get home at night and my Dad is reading the paper and I'm like, 'why is it so familiar?' But then I realise as it happened or the news is released I get it on my phone or on my feed reader. When the news gets published its old news."

Arrie: "We compete actually with Facebook and YouTube and MySpace. We compete with the Googles of this world. What we've learnt in a very short time, you have to be open to changes. Because what you've planned now, if you can't deliver that within three months, you've almost missed the boat. If you wait too long someone else comes along sitting in his garage or study somewhere and comes up with a neat new product, people talk about the new product, it gets traction and there you go."

But people do not only go to the Net for news and information. More and more people prefer to shop online. Rafiq's blog, which is a combination of an online diary, publishing platform and business tool, attracts thousands of new visitors every day. What is said about a brand or product on a blog like this is very influential.

John: "Web 2.0 is changing economies and mindsets. Its forces have the power to make or break companies within the space of a couple of hours. All over the world universities and business schools have recognised the urgent need to understand and navigate this new environment. Here at the Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, new collaborative ways of thinking and creativity are being introduced."

Dave Duarte advises big business and lectures at the GSB and elsewhere on the 'new' economy.

Dave Duarte (Lecturer - Graduate School of Business): "The pace of change now is not only unforeseen, it is unmanageable. So we've got so much stuff coming at us, the expectation for us to keep up with it is not really realistic. We've got to make choices and people like me help people to make the right choices."

John: "How much of a problem is it if businesses don't respond to these huge changes in the environment?"

Dave: "I think part of the big problem with companies who've got it wrong is that they saw an emergent crisis and they took it back to the boardroom. They discussed it and they formulated a strategy by which time the problem had morphed into completely something else. There will be a blogger who's connected and word will go to other bloggers and the inevitable result could be that over a few months a listed company can lose six percent of its share value."

John: "Would I be accurate in saying that South Africa is one step behind?"

Dave: "In some regards, yes, sure, we've got a horribly low rate of broadband penetration. But in regards to the mobile Internet and mobile applications, we are strides ahead to the rest of the world and we're doing stuff which isn't even seen there yet."

Never before have ordinary people as users or consumers had more power. A real shift of knowledge and power is taking place, followed closely by a shift in the lines of wealth.
The advertising world is reeling from the effects of the digital revolution. Senior advertising executive Gail Curtis says the industry will have to change radically if it is going to survive.

Gail Curtis (CEO Saatchi & Saatchi SA): "You can't just throw your budget out and hope you're going to get your consumer like we did before. It's about how you're going to get them to interact, that is becoming really, really crucial. It's: 'What's in it for me?'"

Interactive, personalised marketing means that people play with brands to create their own online identities. They choose features, they vote for products and take part in competitions - all of it feeding into the consumer's need to feel noticed and unique.

Rafiq: "What this technology enables us to do is it puts you in the centre. It's like you become more important. It's not about what everybody else thinks, it's about what you think and what you can do with it, because it's now focused on a market of one."

Gail: "The consumer is actually asking us, 'Tell me what it is you want me to know about your product'. As opposed to, 'Don't talk to me in a way that you think that I want to be spoken to because I can switch off very, very quickly to something else that is more exciting and more fun'. What the new generation is doing and particularly the youth market, they're doing their homework, they're talking on the mobile phone they're playing games and they're watching TV. So they're multitasking and working very, very quickly.

Rafiq: "Continuous partial attention, that's what it's about, because you're always busy with something."

The communication and social habits of an entire society are changing. In the US one out of eight couples getting married met online. Locally the trend is also increasing. Bradley Voges met his German fiancée Sarah on a South African social website.

Bradley Voges: "I saw her profile because I have a profile on the website as well. And so I contacted her and we started chatting on the site and we sent each other a couple of photographs and we started meeting each other in chatrooms."

Sarah: "You never really know, is it a 25-year-old guy or is it a whatever 45-year-old guy who wants to meet with you for a drink. I'm always a little bit careful with that but it turned out just fine."

Bradley and Sarah are getting married, but the inherent problems of too much personal information on the Web have been well documented, especially for younger users who fall prey to sexual predators. What has been less well documented is the psychological and cultural impact of a generation growing up communicating on screens.

Gail: "I think we do have to take care that they don't disconnect. Technology is there for ultimate connectivity. They sit on the beach and they don't swim, they're too busy smsing each other. They date one another and they haven't met each other. It's through pictures and smsing. You can say things via sms that you won't necessarily say to someone if you are looking across the room."

No one knows where the rapid development of the Internet is leading us. All we know is that the pace of change has exceeded our ability to keep up, plan and interpret its impact. We also know that the divide between those who are plugged in and those who are not, is widening.

Rafiq: "If you don't catch up, you're going to be left behind because the world is changing, or it has changed already. People need to plug in and continue."

John: "Web 2.0 may be changing the world in which we live, but I can't imagine a Sunday without the feel of the morning papers between my fingers. It may be old news when compared to what is available on the Internet, but at least its read in a world that I can touch and taste and smell."

GOOGLE, the world's most popular search engine, had to tailor its offerings to work better on cellphones if it was to make real headway in Africa, the group said yesterday.
In a continent with a dearth of computers, the cellphone is the only way most people can get online. And as only 22% of cellphone users have computers, even in relatively wealthy SA, Google's local branch is making mobile search technologies its priority.

Google set up an office in SA last year, poaching Stafford Masie from networking company Novell as its country manager. Yesterday it held its first local media briefing, and was big on promises if thin on figures. Masie would not say how many people it employed in SA, although "a lot" were South Africans who had worked abroad for Google and had come home to launch the local branch.
Most of the staff are sales people out to convince advertisers to switch some of their adspend from TV and radio to online. "We are seeing an increase in advertisers in SA since we announced our presence here. We are building capacity because there's a need for direct interaction," Masie said.
"Our goal is to hire as many really brilliant people as we can," said Google's vice-president of engineering, Douglas Merrill.
Google was launched in the 1990s with the ambitious aim of organising all the information in the world and making it universally accessible. Considering that 80% of information is still not online, it has a long way to go. But the information already online had to be made available to everybody, and in Africa that meant via cellphones, Merrill said.
"The majority of people coming online will be doing it through mobile. We have to find better ways to conduct a search over a mobile phone."
That could involve entering key search words by SMS or speaking into the phone to tell the search engine what you are looking for. Users should also be able to consult maps on their phones and have the directions sent to them via SMS.
"We have a lot of work still to do on mobiles," Merrill said. The race to migrate traditional internet services to the far more densely populated cellphone market has already seen rival player Yahoo declare that more people would soon use its services via cellphones than through computers.
So far, 600-million people have downloaded Yahoo's oneSearch software so they can search for internet content via their cellphones.
Masie said he avoided a life of crime only by being schooled abroad and gaining a different perspective. He said he passionately believed that Google could expose young Africans to a better way of life.
Google's technologies allow people to create their own websites and conduct secure financial transactions on them. Google assists businesses to make the most of their sites and ensure a relevant search from anywhere in the world that would propel their website onto the results list.
Google is working with Internet Solutions and the internet division that Vodacom is due to launch this weekend to help companies get the most from their websites.
With hundreds of thousands of people due to visit SA for the 2010 World Cup it was crucial for companies to ensure their services received maximum prominence online, since most visitors would search for information before travelling, Masie said.
Entrepreneurs could also make money from their websites because Google shared the revenue from advertisements on those pages.
Google's support for multiple languages sees it offer its search services in Afrikaans, Sesotho, Zulu and Xhosa. Merrill said he was keen to add SA's other indigenous languages, but the local branch would guide how much priority that received, given SA's internet user demographics.

INTERNET search engine giant Google is accelerating its efforts to bring South African information onto the Internet.
The US-based company started operations in South Africa last year, but is tight-lipped about its intentions for the South African market.
Stafford Masie, Google South Africa’s manager, said: “We’ve been in talks with ISPs who do a lot of hosting in order to build a presence locally.
“We don’t want to say how many people we’ve employed or what Google products we’ll be bringing to South Africa, but we’ll be looking specifically at mobile usage.”
About 75 percent of mobile users in South Africa don’t own personal computers and out of that, 85% will never have a PC, according to Google’s vice president of engineering, Douglas Merrill. He said: “What people do with a mobile device is unique, and our goal is to communicate the potential for the South African market.
“There are many companies out there that are making money from our products, and we just want people to maximise their own businesses,” he added.
Google set up shop in June last year and brought back into the country South Africans who had left to work for Google in other countries.
The company launched a sales team that sold advertising space and advised on website construction that would lead more visitors to web pages.
Tshepo Tsele, Paperless Consulting director, said: “Google has moved on from just being a search engine to doing more research and census work. They haven’t placed themselves completely in South Africa, since a lot of their products are still broadly directed at an international audience.”
The search capabilities for South Africa are still scattered on google.co.za, and many search results are still imprecise.
The company intends to collect key information about South African culture including tourism, traditional medicine and stories.
The company that hopes to make all the world’s information universally accessible has a long way to go.
Merrill said: “Over 80% of the world’s information is offline. We want to take all that information, especially in Africa, where a lot of the knowledge is passed down orally into people’s heads.”

Google to focus on mobile usage in SA, by Zweli Mokgata, 19 Feb 2008

Internet search engine giant Google is accelerating its efforts to bring South African information to the Internet.
The US company started operations in South Africa last year but is tight-lipped about its intentions for the local market.
Stafford Masie, Google’s manager for South Africa, said: “We’ve been in talks with Internet service providers to build a presence locally.
“We don’t want to say how many people we’ve employed or what Google products we’ll be bringing, but we’ll be looking specifically at mobile usage.”
About 75percent of cellphone users in South Africa don’t own a personal computer, and 85percent of them never will, according to Google’s vice-president for engineering, Douglas Merrill.
He said: “What people do with a mobile device is unique and our goal is to communicate the potential to the South African market.
“Many companies are making money from our products and we want people to maximise their own businesses,” he added.
Google set up shop here in June and launched a sales team to sell advertising space.
Tshepo Tsele, director at Paperless Consulting, said: “Google has moved on from being a search engine to doing more research and census work".

Mobile web ‘will define future’ Toby Shapshak, online services via cellphones is the key to the success, conference told, 13 Feb 2008

Mobile broadband has emerged as the biggest new development in the cellular industry this year.
Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin told this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona — the world’s biggest telecommunications conference — that mobile Internet would define the future.
Cellular operators need to adopt new, data-centric business models, simplify their pricing and creatively integrate broadband offerings or risk losing their customers and revenue, he added.
In the main address at the conference, which attracted about 55000 visitors, Sarin said: “Our industry is at an important crossroads. Operators need to invest to bring important mobile Internet services to life … we can’t sit back and become bit pipes.”
Robert Conway, chief executive of the GSM Association, said: “The leading indicators show we have reached the tipping point with mobile broadband. We have the networks, we have the devices and we have the speed.”
Sarin agreed: “Customers want fast, wireless broadband. The new, new thing is Internet on the mobile.”
He added that Vodafone, the world’s biggest operator by revenue and a 50 percent shareholder in Vodacom, already has 21 million 3G subscribers and is looking at combinations of providing wired and wireless broadband.
He said that the current HSDPA technology has been an excellent investment that has lived up to its promises where previous 3G technologies disappointed.
Highlighting growth in emerging markets, Sarin said Vodafone’s Indian operation was growing well, while South Africa experienced 15percent growth. Vodafone’s data revenue has increased 40percent year on year, as call prices were dropping by 15percent to 20percent a year.
Rick Stevenson, head of Samsung’s US telecoms business, said mobile WiMAX would be a key driver this year, with 196 operators around the world running these networks, which use a super-fast wireless connectivity system that is backed by chip maker Intel.
He said: “We’re seeing a new business model. Operators are stepping away from the subsidy model. We’re seeing WiMAX- embedded devices sold through consumer electronics retailers [directly to consumers].”
Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said a Village Connection system by Nokia Siemens Network aimed to get emerging markets online. These first-time users would experience cellphones and the Internet very differently from the first one billion, as new technology would give them much greater opportunities, he said.

With uptake of mobile Internet services growing rapidly, Point Topic believes that six distinct clusters of users are emerging - road warriors, gadget joys, MI lifers, mid-market moderates, entertain us and light & easy.

While categories such as road warriors, who use mobile Internet for business while travelling, and gadget joys, who are classic early adopters are already recognizable technology user types, there are new types of users emerging. Entertain us are predominantly young people using mobiles for entertainment, while light &easy are older users whose main method of Internet access is through mobile devices. Mid-market moderates are late adopters who have yet to find a compelling use for mobile Internet.

According to the company, around 83% of all mobile Internet users fall into these categories, and it is important that service providers understand them and their habits to target services effectively

"Think of them as like the audiences for different radio channels," said Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic. "You've got to have the right mix of content and features to get the audience to tune in. People can use the profiles of these clusters in the same way, to work out what they need to offer a particular segment of the market."

Internet becomes increasingly mobile, by www.itweb.co.za, 18 Feb 2008

Mobile Internet usage in SA is increasing, providing several marketing opportunities.

The boom in mobile Internet use in SA is largely due to low data tariffs, and access to mobile Web and Web sites designed specifically for mobile phones, says Rian Groenewald, Multimedia Solutions operations director.

Admob, a mobile advertiser, says SA is ranked third in its worldwide advertising statistics, garnering 144 million impressions in December 2007.
Instant messaging service Mxit is also enjoying a boom, with six million registered users and a growth rate of between 10 000 and 11 000 new subscriptions per day.

This kind of traffic has caused mobile service providers to jump on the instant messaging bandwagon. “MTN has already launched its instant messaging (IM) service, NokNok while Vodacom announced it would be launching The Grid and Meep early in the new year,” Groenewald says.

This all leads to the conclusion that 2008 will be a good year for mobile, says Groenewald. But he questions whether South African retailers will be prepared.

According to Groenewald, retailers and corporates need to incorporate mobile Internet into their marketing plans for this year, because regular Internet users in SA number a few million, while mobile phone users number around 25 million.

“And a large percentage of the cellphone base is now starting to actively look for information online. While most are browsing mobile content, sports news, entertainment news, weather, etc, from their phones, they could just as easily be browsing retailers' mobi sites if they were available.”

Google Mobile Search, By Scott Van Achte, 2008-02-18

Google Search Offered on Nokia Handsets
Tuesday, Nokia announced a deal to offer Google Search to customers worldwide.

Google will now be the default search integrated into new select Nokia handsets. The deal will offer users faster, easier access to online information from their mobile devices as well as the ability to search the handset itself for any content they have stored within it.

Nokia offers easy searching only one click away from the active standby screen. By increasing the ease of use, ultimately it will increase the number of users taking advantage of the feature.
"Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet service strategy," said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice-president, software and services at Nokia. "This integration allows our consumers the ability to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google almost synonymous with Internet search.
Nokia and Google have had a previous relationship. Last year the Nokia N95 became the first mobile device to support YouTube, and Google Search has been available on Nokia Internet tablets for some time now.
Google Searches Abundant on iPhones
On Wednesday, Google reported that it has seen more mobile searches by users using Apple iPhones by 50 times that of any other mobile handset, according to the Financial Time. This shows that the increasing use of mobile search will prove to be a significant source of revenue for Google and others involved in mobile search into the future, but the statistic had Google second guessing.
"'We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,' Vic Gundotra, head of Google's mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona."
Gundotra went on to note that the number of mobile searches could outnumber that of fixed internet searches "within the next several years" if other manufactures improve the ease of web access as Apple has.

Mobile Internet, is it the next big thing in India?

Published by Abhishek on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 6:50 PM

We had been struggling to increase our Internet base and PC penetration but slowly a new realization has happened to all the companies that instead growth lies in a format which has a much wider reach than any other medium in India and this medium is Mobile the fourth screen as this week's business world calls it. It has emerged as the alternative to cinema, TV and the computer screens — all put together. Now, it promises to change the way an average Indian entertains himself and conducts business.

Some of the reasons for the hype over mobile internet are

Total number of Mobile users in India are more than number of TV households in India .

India's internet based mobile revenues have jumped from anemic $150 millionto $700 million within 2 years.

Nokia's service Mosh's most users are from India and it is in talks with indian providers to offer its service Ovi in india.

Companies like Bharti are trying for licence from SBI that will allow people to remit money over mobile.

Reliance's non SMS services accounted for 75.4 % of total data revenues.

All the Internet biggies starting from Google and yahoo to portals like Cricinfo and startups like Mundu are creating applications for the mobile internet.

There are some serious drawbacks which are hindering the growth

Telecom Operators in India keep 70-80 percent of revenue compared to companies like NTT Docomo of japan which shares 90% of revenue with the operators and served as catalyst for mobile internet boom in Japan

Out of the 30 million subscribers figure 10 million belong to Reliacne's R world only.

Feature rich handsets are not affordable.

Lot of services including Google's local searches are pretty crappy on mobile

This is an example of how the Internet economy works

Satish K., a restless 25-year-old techie from a Gurgaon-based software firm, logs on to Airtel’s network using his Nokia N 95 handset. He gets to Google and searches for Nike, clicks on the latest offering from the world’s largest shoemaker, checks out its price tag and logs off without buying the shoe. What heisn’t aware of is that with his idle browsing, he has just triggered a transaction in the mobile internet space. Nike will pay Google a click-based fee for being the conduit for a potential customer and Google, in turn, will share an undisclosed proportion of the revenue with mobile operator Bharti Airtel.

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Google: Mobile Phones Are The Future Of The Internet

The Meaning of Life

"People ask me, "What is the purpose of life?" And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.

God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain."

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism?
Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.

He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, Not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD. "

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20 Reasons why web based applications are better than desktop applications – by Vinny Lingham

Never installed

Browser based software never requires installation processes or hard drive space. It lives in a virtual cloud in the Internet and this means that whenever you launch it, it always has the latest version. Ajax has made it possible to deliver Desktop-like look & feel, and functionality, with no loss of performance!

Updates are seamless

Instead of having to patch each and every individual user, the patches/upgrades are applied to the server and each user received the updated version the next time they log in.

No legacy

This is a big issue for traditional software vendors. Users who purchase previous versions of a software almost always will result in legacy versions lying around which need support (which is costly). The problems relating to legacy software are almost limitless, and often is not efficient for both the vendor or the customer.

No admin rights required

Finally, a world where the network administrator in the company does not have to approve the installation of your software!

Available anywhere, anytime

Ok, so the anytime comment is a stretch, but that’s only until Adobe’s Apollo gets here (here’s hoping!). The same way that people access their email from any browser, web apps are exactly the same.

Platform independent

This opens a wider market for software vendors – no longer do they have to build technology around a specific platform and limit their market (or incur additional costs to build for another platform). The browser is the platfom and therefore I believe you will see increased uptake in OS’s like Mac OS and Linus, due to the increased availability of Web Applications.

Less environmental conflicts

There are certainly going to be a lot less bugs in Web based software, due to the fact that it is not depending on any of the hardware or environment settings in the OS that may usually cause a problem.

Enables social possibilities

Many Web Apps are creating chat facilities and the ability to share your work in real time. This removes the previous “stand-alone” functionality that use to exist with most installed desktop applications. The world is becoming more and more social - people want to collaborate and work online together - Web Apps allows this, painlessly.

Lower cost of sale

No boxes, printed manual, expensive shipping costs, CD’s, distribution channels, middlemen, etc. Desktop apps are going to be more economical to produce and will result in a lower cost of sale!

Usable from inexpensive PCs

$100 Laptops, here we come! What do you need a dual core processor for, if you’re running a thin client application? This opens up a world of cost savings for both companies and consumers, especially in the field of productivity apps (obviously, not gaming!).

Piracy-proof

Here is a big one. Imagine a world without software piracy. That world is here, and Web Applications are the solution to that problem. Next problem, please!

No bad debts

Sofware companies are often owed money from distributors, that invariably go bust from time to time. With Web Apps, the cash is collected upfront and as long as the customer pays, the account is in good stead.

Low-cost support and maintenance

Given that the browser is now the platform, operational support costs and maintenance for Web Application providers will drop substantially. No need to have expensive operating system gurus on hand to help with installation problems. Also, using products like the Amazon EC2 cloud, will allow scalability, without a proportionate increase in costs.

User’s data is kept safe in hosting environment

Although this is probably not going to be true for all Web App companies, but using providers like Rackspace or Amazon’s EC2 cloud will go a long way in reassuring your customers that their data is safer than on their desktop!

No Viruses

No installation, means no viruses. Start shorting all those Anti-Virus stocks! Enough said!

Low cost global distribution

No more channel reliance. Most software companies make it or break it, depending on their channel. Forget that – focus on the biggest channel of all – the 1 billion users online!

Lower software price entry point for customers

Given the benefits above, you will see more products such as Basecamp and Synthasite that will offer far greater value than their desktop equivalents.

Access to the entire assets of the Web (APIs, widgets, messaging, collaboration)

By being wired into the web, Web Apps are able to integrate seamless into API’s etc and are a lot more customizable, than traditional software applications.

Mobile is here

Compiled desktop applications are going to have a hard time being adapted for mobile devices. Web apps are ready made (in most cases).

Widest potential audience

For all the points above, this basically unlocks markets for software vendors that previously were inaccessible due to technical reasons.

Top 10 Mistakes in Online, compliments of Laura Chisholm of www.eclipsegroup.com.au

It seems there are some frustrated web designers, consultants and engineers out there because, as history has shown us, the same classic mistakes are made (online) over and over again.

The following is a top ten list from the collective wisdom of 50-plus designers, engineers and consultants who have worked on thousands of websites for a combined total of over 500 years. Listen to them and don't make the same mistakes yourself.

Mistake #1: No vision or objectives

'We need a website!' I hear companies cry. Why? Because everyone else has one. All too often companies create websites without a clear understanding of the reason behind it. Not having a clear vision and understanding of your objectives can lead to a disorganised and purposeless site.

Take the time to think about your website's objectives and measure its performance accordingly. Is your website going to be used to sell products online, drive leads to your sales team, provide support or self-service, provide information or deliver online content? Every one of these objectives will require a different design focus and different methods of measurement.

Mistake #2: Forgetting the user

This is the most heinous of online crimes. After all, the user is the only reason we are here at all.

User-centred design is a philosophy founded on the users. It focuses on designing interfaces around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the system or function. Of course, this is a very difficult thing to do if you don't understand your audience. A good way to get a better understanding of your online users' needs is to develop personas. Personas, also known as user types, are fictitious characters that embody characteristics and attributes of real target user groups. Personas should be used to keep the user front of mind throughout the design process and to validate design decisions.

Mistake #3: Poor alignment and integration with other channels

Consumers these days switch between many channels to complete their tasks. They are just as likely to want to interact with your organisation on the web as they are in person or on the phone.

In most organisations the online channel is treated as a poor cousin to the other channels in the mix. It doesn't command the same respect as call centres or shops. It's time to face up to it; the web is now a mainstream channel and should be treated with the same respect as your other channels.

Integrate your marketing approach so other channels are driving traffic to your website and visa versa. Common mistakes are not including your URL in your offline marketing collateral or not providing your customer service number on your website.

Mistake #4: Neglect

A classic and oh, so sad mistake. Organisations too frequently invest in a beautiful new website only to ignore it from that point onwards. Websites are neglected in two major ways.

Firstly, most organisations seem to operate their websites under the assumption of 'build it and they will come'. Once the site is launched, no attempt is made to drive traffic to the website. My Creative Director likens launching a website to giving birth. The responsibility doesn't stop with the delivery, but continues for the rest of its natural life. At an absolute minimum you should ensure that your website is optimised for the major search engines. Not doing this these days is the equivalent of not listing your business in the Yellow Pages.

Secondly, the content on websites is too often out of date. An out of date website disappoints the user and makes your company look shabby. If a user has a disappointing experience in your online channel, t will lead them to expect a similar experience in your other channels.

Mistake #5: Content crisis

Too much, Not enough, Incorrect information? The most common mistake is to cram too much information onto one page, which makes it difficult to absorb and fails to get the message across to the user. However, it is not so much the content itself that tends to be the problem but the delivery of that content. For example, a 5,000 word report would be very difficult to digest online no matter how interesting it is. If the same report were transformed into a five minute podcast for users to download it would be ideal.

Mistake #6: Creative craziness

To all you creative folks out there, sorry but this one is going to hurt. All too often usability falls prey to gratuitous creativity. Very few websites have the objective of simply being cool to look at. Jazzy, flash-heavy websites almost always detract from the main purpose of the site. What is more, these sites have low accessibility and usually take a long time to load. Use creative design to help deliver your messages but do so judiciously.

Mistake #7: Poor usability

Usability is the key to successful website design. If people don't or can't use your website it is a waste of money.

To avoid making this mistake follow the 'Rule of Least Surprise'. - always do the least surprising thing in interface design. Break with tried and tested paradigms only if you have a very good reason to do so - not just to because you think it's clever or different. It takes users a long time to learn new paradigms and you don't want to be the one to teach them.

To find out how usable your website is, test it with some users. If at all possible run the designs past your grandmother. If they don't pass the grandmother test, you are in trouble.

Mistake #8: Navigation or orienteering?

Information architecture (IA) is the practice of structuring information for a particular purpose. Your website may be full of great content but none of this is worth a thing if no-one can find it.

A classic navigation mistake is for companies to organise the information on their websites according to their own internal organizational structure and terminology. This type of external projection usually makes very little sense to your common or garden website user and results in confusion. When developing your information architecture use personas and scenarios to test whether your navigation titles and hierarchies make sense for your user.

Mistake #9: Silver bullet syndrome

The silver bullet syndrome is the belief that your website site will fulfil all the needs of all users every single time they visit. There will always be at least one user with a quirky, out of left-field need that your website will not be able to satisfy. Make it easy for them to find your contact details - don't leave them banging their heads against a cyber brick wall.

And despite all your best efforts with the IA, navigational nirvana is hard to come by. There will always be someone out there who wants to take an alternative route to the information they are after. Providing good search functionality as an alternative is vital as it allows users to apply their own reasoning to the goal of finding information.

Mistake #10: Personalisation panacea

This mistake is to think that by allowing personalisation the user experience will automatically be improved. The undisputed guru of personalisation is Amazon.com. This website knows what products you have bought in the past and matches that information with the purchases of others who bought the same books to recommend something else you will probably enjoy reading. Here, personalisation improves the user experience. Do not provide personalisation if it does not add value to the user's online experience.

Users will be annoyed if you make them jump through hoops for no apparent reason or value. Invest in core functions such as content, usability and information architecture before all the bells and whistles of personalisation.

So, how many mistakes does your company make? If you're not making any of these mistakes, enter some awards. You'll probably win. If you are making even one of these mistakes it could be putting the performance of your website at risk

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Hot tips for creating simple tests that improve email marketing results, by Gail Goodman of www.constantcontact.com.

What if you could make a slight change to one of your e-mails and get a 20 percent lift in opens or a 10 percent increase in sales? You would do it in an instant. But how do you know which element to change? That's where testing comes in.
E-mail marketing makes it easy to quickly test important elements of your e-mail at very little or no extra cost. With testing, you can find out what factors influence the success of your e-mail. Follow these five steps to create an effective and measurable test.

1. Decide what to test.
Because testing with e-mail is so easy, it's tempting to test many elements at once. Start by testing just one. Why? If you test more than one element in the same e-mail, it's challenging--and sometimes impossible--to determine what influenced the response. Here are some easy and telling tests:

Subject lines--Create two different subject lines for the same e-mail communication. For example, a boutique owner just added a home and garden section and wants to get the word out to her customers. Here are the subject lines she'll test.
• Subject line No. 1: New! Home and garden section added
• Subject line No. 2: Get what you need for your home and garden

Long vs. short copy-- Is less really more? Create a shorter version of your current newsletter with teasers and links to your website. Or create two versions of a promotional e-mail. Keep one very short and to-the-point and make the other a little longer by adding additional, useful information.

Special offers--Create two different offers. For example, an online bookseller wants to get rid of last season's bestsellers. He sends the following offers to see which one gets a better response.
• Offer No. 1: Buy three books and get one free
• Offer No. 2: Buy three books and get free shipping
Other tests could include the time of day or day of the week you send, whether you include an image, types of calls-to-action, and the placement of a call-to-action button or link. I'm sure that you will come up with other areas you would like to test as well.

2. Decide how to measure success.
What will you measure to determine success? Possibilities include website traffic, response to an offer, sales, opens and click-throughs. Whichever you decide on, be confident that you can attribute an increase--or decrease--in the area you measure directly to the e-mail you send. The easiest place to start is with your e-mail communication opens and click-throughs, data that your e-mail marketing service provider makes available to you.

3. Determine how to divide your e-mail list.
When it comes to who you will send your test to, you have two options. You can either split your entire list in half and test one half against the other or take a random sample and do a pre-test.
A pre-test is an excellent way to find out what works before sending the e-mail to your entire list. This knowledge can greatly improve your overall response rate. It also protects you from sending a poor e-mail test to a large portion of your list--and wasting your efforts. To pre-test, choose a random sampling of 100 people from your master list, then split that in half and send each half one of the two test campaigns.

4. Test, measure, and declare a winner.
Once you have everything ready, send your test e-mails. The great thing about e-mail is that you get your results quickly: within a 24-to-48-hour period you will know which e-mail communication got a better result. Declare your winner, send that e-mail to the remaining members of your list and watch the results come in.

5. Have fun and keep it up.
Did I mention that testing is fun? Make a guess about which version will win before you send and see if you are right. What's amazing about testing--and what proves its incredible value--is that many times the results are not at all what you expect.
Let your customers, clients or members tell you, through their actions, what they respond to best. This is an excellent and trustworthy way to improve your e-mails. Test often. You may be surprised every time.
Gail F. Goodman is the "E-Mail Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and is CEO of Constant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She's also a recognized small-business expert and speaker.