The Downside

So, I already blogged about Facebook’s Platform and how it will generate new business models and economies on the web. But today brought news of Facebook’s future plans to change the face of the Internet altogether with an online operating system. Facebook, in their first corporate acquisition, bought Parakey, makers of an online OS that is still under wraps.

We’ve been hearing rumors of an “online operating system” for years now, mostly in the context of Google acquisitions, but this is the first time we’ve heard it from a major social network. What exactly is an online operating system, you ask? Well, the definitions vary, but from what is known about Parakey, it looks like they will allow users to do a variety of unique things.

The most important functionality this presents is the ability to directly access files on your hard drive from within a web application. This would let you edit documents, photos, and movies from your hard drive using a web-based application (no more buying and installing software?), and then you can publish your work directly to the web (or your Facebook profile) with a click or two - the software takes care of moving the file from your hard drive to a web server, and it synchronizes the files on your hard drive with your files on the web. It’s possible that the platform would be open as well (it seems like Facebook’s style), allowing other companies to build applications for the online OS, so you could choose which one you wanted to use to write your documents, mix your MP3s, edit your baby videos, etc. etc.

If any upcoming technological development has the capacity to bring user-publishing and user-generated content to the masses, it’s this. Of course its success will depend on the execution and the actual ease of use, but this technology, plugged into a social network that already counts as members a huge number of the people in a demographic that is likely to be interested in publishing their own content, has the potential to revolutionize how we use the web.

For those of us who are already savvy enough to publish our photos and movies to the web, this could offer a different paradigm shift. I blogged a while back about my orgasmic scenario of not having to rely on my home computer and its hard drive, and of keeping all my files online (with automatic backups) so that I could access my MP3s, my movies, and my documents, from any device, at any time. An online OS takes this model one step further - not only can I access my files from anywhere, but I can work with them - I can view them, edit them, and share them - from any device that supports the online OS, be it my computer, a computer in a library, a kiosk at the airport, my Xbox or PS3, or potentially even my phone. Then we would be able to truly unplug. What would be better than that?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Internet, Technology. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.