What characterizes major computing revolutions?

  • They’ve all started by the work of individuals, that wished to solve a problem, & suggested a really simple solution for it
  • The solution was so powerful, that it spread like a virus, disrupting the way all of us use computers, do business, & in general, live

What’s driving this river of technology changes?

  • Maybe it is the desire of individuals to build a simple solution to a real problem they’re having
  • Usually they’re also free (as in Freedom), open, & based on an architecture of participation, meaning that it’s by people & for people

What drives these simple solutions to be so powerful is a combination of 3 forces:

  • Integration: by commoditizing systems into services & components, higher level systems can be composed from smaller ones
  • Virtualization: by abstracting things, people can easily work with them without caring what’s behind
  • Socialization: by harnessing the power of social work, virtual teams & communities can be formed & together have tremendous power

[From a lecture on Web2.0 & the Semantic Web that I recently gave at TAU]