Web 2.0 vs Desktop 2.0
Got the opportunity to attend the Adobe Apollo conference yesterday. One of the speakers made an interesting comment:
Google is fueling the Web 2.0 (hype) by taking the desktop applications to the web. Adobe, on the other hand is pushing for Desktop 2.0 by taking the web applications to the desktop. And how the users of the Apollo application never have to see the ‘The page can not be displayed’ message.
Thinking from the OpenID perspective, one of the issues with the protocol (or any browser based SSO protocol for that matter) is the dependency on the provider. If the relying party server is down, you will not be able to access that specific relying party. However, what happens if your OpenID Provider is down (regular maintenance, outage, whatever)? You will not be able to access any of the relying parties. You may have multiple OpenID identifiers but there aren’t many relying parties that allow linking of multiple OpenID identifiers to the same account. And even if the relying party allows UNPW as an alternative, the chances are pretty slim that you will remember your credentials (especially if you are used to the OpenID way of login). Don’t know if it can be done, but it will be nice to have a desktop way of using the OpenID identifier and take the provider dependency out of the equation.
Anyway, here are a few highlights of the Apollo session:
- Over 100 people showed up for the conference. Had conversations with several during the break time. And almost everyone was enthusiastic and hopeful that this technology will take off.
- In the past 2 weeks, there have been 50,000 downloads and 260,000 visits to the Apollo website.
- Their bullet points include a) cross-platform b) use existing skill set c) semi-connected internet d) extremely rich GUI interface e) same experience whether or not connected to the internet f) drag and drop from the browser to the desktop.
- Showed the demo of the ebay desktop where you can drag your wish list to your desktop (in a excel spread sheet).
- System alerts e.g. if anyone outbids you on ebay, you’ll get an alert.
- Forrester did a presentation on the value of branding, ROI on RIA etc. In their survey of 80,000 people, only 2% commented against the use of RIA.
- Here is a list of some of the sites that were mentioned as the early adopters
- FineTune (http://www.finetune.com/)
- Ebay Desktop (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/videos/apollo_demo07/index.html)
- Scrapblog (http://scrapblog.com/ )
- Buzzword (http://www.virtub.com/)
- Apple Human Interface Design Guidelines was mentioned as a must-read for GUI developers.
It was a great experience to talk to several web / human interface designers. It’s a different world out there….honestly, a lot more energetic and a lot more creative.
Net/Net…I was very impressed with some of the demos that I got to see. I couldn’t help but think that it would be nice to write Windows CardSpace in Apollo. Any takers?
CardSpace, Identity, Infocard, OpenID | Ashish Jain | 
May 4, 2007 10:13 pm
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Ashish Jain: Web 2.0 vs Desktop 2.0 Johannes Ernst: See You In Munich (München!) This Coming Week Kaliya Hamlin Lukas Rosenstock: Visions and criticism on OpenID The OpenID Buzz: Setting up your own OpenID Server
Ashish Jain – Ping Identity — Web 2.0 vs Desktop 2.0 [IMG [Technorati links]]
For OpenID, as long as you’ve confirmed the user’s e-mail address you can provide a “my OpenID isn’t working” link which sends them a one-time token via e-mail that lets them sign in to the site – exactly like “I’ve forgotten my password” works on most sites today. Definitely agree that smart sites will allow users to associate more than one OpenID with an account so they can still log in if one of their providers is down.
Simon,
The OpenID provider may have provided more secure means of authentication (e.g. biometric). Don’t you think that the ‘one time token thru email from a RP’ will negate that. Besides by outsourcing the user, the RP may not feel the need to store the user’s email address.
Thanks.
- Ashish.