![\"Process](\"http:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/process_cloud.jpg\")
Pro\u00adcess Cloud<\/span><\/p>\nNot all of the things that are import\u00adant in Web 2.0 are new, of course. Open Source<\/b> soft\u00adware has been around for a long time, but I would argue that it has nev\u00ader been as pop\u00adu\u00adlar as now, where more people have the abil\u00adity to con\u00adtrib\u00adute their time and tal\u00adent to pro\u00adjects for which they\u2019re not dir\u00adectly paid (unless they\u2019re lucky enough to work for a com\u00adpany that sup\u00adports such projects). <\/p>\n
The con\u00adcepts of con\u00adtinu\u00adal beta<\/b> and quick release cycles<\/b> are new though. It was\u00adn\u2019t that long ago that you could only buy con\u00adsumer-level soft\u00adware in boxes with pretty pic\u00adtures and prin\u00adted manu\u00adals, either in stores or by call\u00ading com\u00adpan\u00adies. For expens\u00adive soft\u00adware that needed con\u00adsult\u00ading ser\u00advices to install and con\u00adfig\u00adure sales reps would vis\u00adit if you worked for a large enough com\u00adpany. To take part in a beta pro\u00adgram you needed to know someone who worked in the com\u00adpany and sign an NDA<\/span><\/abbr>, and it was a small, tightly-con\u00adtrolled circle.<\/p>\n These days the Web 2.0 browser-based applic\u00ada\u00adtions don\u2019t need hand-hold\u00ading to install and con\u00adfig\u00adure, so the serv\u00ader load is the big con\u00adstraint on how many people can take part at once. There are sev\u00ader\u00adal fla\u00advours of beta pro\u00adgrams: invite some \u201cthought lead\u00aders\u201d and ask them to invite their friends in the hope they\u2019ll blog a lot about it (Gmail did this, you got 6 invites, then 50, then you could invite 250 of your closest friends to take part, most of whom already had gmail accounts); unlim\u00adited invites start\u00ading with a small circle; sign up on a wait\u00ading list; allow in any\u00adone from cer\u00adtain com\u00adpan\u00adies (dopplr does this, with the twist that the mem\u00adbers can then invite any\u00adone they like).<\/p>\n The \u201ccon\u00adtinu\u00adal beta\u201d bit comes from the fact that these applic\u00ada\u00adtions are updated quickly; these updates are often tried out on some of the users before being rolled out to all. Flickr appar\u00adently had hun\u00addreds of incre\u00adment\u00adal releases in 18 months from Feb\u00adru\u00adary 2004 to Octo\u00adber 2005 (stated in O\u2019Reilly\u2019s Web 2.0 Prin\u00adciples and Best Prac\u00adtices<\/cite>; I could\u00adn\u2019t find an online ref\u00ader\u00adence oth\u00ader than that report). The line between a beta and a non-beta applic\u00ada\u00adtion seems to be a fine one; the only dis\u00adtinc\u00adtion in many cases that the user can see is the word \u201cbeta\u201d on the web site. Con\u00adtinu\u00adal releases give users a reas\u00adon to come back often, new fea\u00adtures can be tested and fixed quickly. Of course, this sort of sys\u00adtem does\u00adn\u2019t really work for fun\u00adda\u00adment\u00adal soft\u00adware such as oper\u00adat\u00ading sys\u00adtems, data\u00adbases, browsers, iden\u00adtity pro\u00adviders, and dir\u00adect\u00adory ser\u00advices, where you want full-on secur\u00adity and regres\u00adsion test\u00ading, but it does work for the Web 2.0 applic\u00ada\u00adtions that run on those bits of fun\u00adda\u00adment\u00adal software.<\/p>\n And in keep\u00ading with the user-cre\u00adated<\/em> ten\u00adets of Web 2.0, plat\u00adforms such as Face\u00adbook that enable third-party developers to write applic\u00ada\u00adtions to run on that plat\u00adform also ful\u00adfill the func\u00adtion of con\u00adtinu\u00adally adding fea\u00adtures to the applic\u00ada\u00adtion without the own\u00aders need\u00ading to code any\u00adthing, or pay people to add fea\u00adtures. The users do it all for them \u2014 use the plat\u00adform, add fea\u00adtures to the plat\u00adform, mar\u00adket their added fea\u00adtures. The own\u00aders sup\u00adply the hard\u00adware and the basic infra\u00adstruc\u00adture (which needs to be stable and reli\u00adable) and the users do the rest. At least, that\u2019s the the\u00adory and the hope.<\/p>\n Which brings us to the busi\u00adness mod\u00adels<\/b>. How do people pay for the hard\u00adware, soft\u00adware, pro\u00adgram\u00admers, mar\u00adket\u00ading? There are a num\u00adber of ways in which Web 2.0 com\u00adpan\u00adies try to cov\u00ader the bills for long enough to sur\u00advive until they can be acquired by some big\u00adger com\u00adpany. One is advert\u00adising. Google and its com\u00adpet\u00adit\u00adors have made it easy for even small web sites, such as blog\u00adgers in the long tail, to make some money from ads. It\u2019s more than enough to pay the bills for some sites, since it\u2019s now cheap or free to build and launch a site. Some sites are free when you watch the ads, but you can pay for an ad-free ver\u00adsion. Or free for private use, but cost some\u00adthing for com\u00admer\u00adcial use. And then there\u2019s the vari\u00adant where a basic account is free, but you have to pay if you want more fea\u00adtures, such as upload\u00ading files, or upload\u00ading more than a cer\u00adtain num\u00adber of pho\u00adtos. A vari\u00adant for open source soft\u00adware is that the soft\u00adware is free, but you need to pay for sup\u00adport or real help in con\u00adfig\u00adur\u00ading it, or to get new releases more quickly.<\/p>\n One of a series on Web 2.0, taken from my talk at the CSW<\/span> Sum\u00admer School in July 2007. Here<\/a>\u2019s the series intro\u00adduc\u00adtion. Com\u00ading up next: some issues<\/a> with Web 2.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The third aspect of Web 2.0, which is often under-appre\u00ad\u00adci\u00adated, is the pro\u00adcess aspect. This has changed people\u2019s expect\u00ada\u00adtions of what soft\u00adware can do, and how it should be delivered. This cat\u00adegory includes open source, con\u00adtinu\u00adal beta and quick release cycles, and some new busi\u00adness mod\u00adels. Pro\u00adcess Cloud Not all of the things that are import\u00adant \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cWeb 2.0: Process\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presentations","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}