Edwin Aoki of AOL speaking at Future of Web Apps in London, February 2007.

1. The Changing Face of Online
Communities and Communications
Future of Web
Applications Edwin Aoki
Conference
Chief Architect, AOL
Feb. 20, 2007

2. In the
Beginning…
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3. Where it all began
From its
beginnings,
community has
been a key
promise of the
Web
Courtesy: CERN and the Internet Archive
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4. Agenda
• Current state of web applications for online communities and
communications
• Near-term trends
• Thoughts and implications
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5. Webmail is the leading driver of page views
Email Svcs (1089
sites)
9.32%
Search Engines
(2322 sites)
7.32%
News/Media
(6080 sites)
3.40%
Business and
Finance
(1030 sites)
0.57%
All Others
79.38%
Source: Portal property Rankings and Market Share by Vertical
Hitwise (www.hitwise.com), May 2006
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6. Chat and Instant Messaging take to the web
Web based IM and chat tools allow users to stay connected
without the need for a dedicated client, giving up very little
of the experience, thanks to modern web UI technologies.
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7. “Obvious” community applications on the Web
Blogging
Message Boards
Social Networking
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8. And some less obvious ones…
Reference
Auctions
Commerce
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9. Predecessor of the modern mashup?
Courtesy: WebRing/GeoCities/Yahoo! and the Internet Archive
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10. Industry
Trends
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11. Disaggregation and syndication
• Users seek out the experiences and communities
they’re interested in
• Allows for highly tailored and focused experiences
– Fulfilling the promise of the “Long Tail”
• Content and service providers don’t control the
context in which their applications are used or seen
• Can be a boon for application providers, but also a
challenge
– YouTube, Photobucket, Flickr
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12. Web apps, too will become syndicated
• For content, it’s “embedding”, for applications “mashups”
• Community and Communication Tools are key candidates
• Embedding community and/or
communications tools increases
engagement and drives value to
content providers
– IM (shown)
– Message boards
– Ratings and profiling
• These interactions will increasingly
take place in situ, rather than in
dedicated “destinations”
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13. Community goes mobile
• Content and Community applications will follow users to
where they work, play, and live
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14. Sometimes Second Life comes first
• The world between online and virtual blurs rapidly
• “Real world” brands are trying to establish an identity in virtual worlds
– BBC, Toyota, Vodafone, AOL, just to name a few
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15. Our Shared
Responsibility
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16. “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”
• As technologists, we must make sure that the tools and services we
build can be used safely and effectively
• Most users aren’t aware and/or don’t care about the implications of
being online
– Security/Privacy
– Spam
– Social Effects
• Decentralization is particularly disruptive for the traditional “trust
model” of applications
– “Who to trust” is a complex question when services are provided by multiple
providers
– Distributed identity management systems such as OpenID complicate this
even further
Quote: Spiderman, 2002
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17. Bridging the “Digital Divide”
• Applications we build must be accessible to all
The visually, audibly, or motion impaired
–
Older generations
–
Different socioeconomic backgrounds
–
People of developing and emerging nations
–
• Everyone benefits when online communities
represent a wide range of backgrounds, cultures,
and interests
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18. The Future is in the Balance
• Power and Ease of Use
• Social Benefits and Commercial Interests
• Online and Offline Interactions
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19. Thank You
Edwin Aoki
aoki@aol.net
To learn more about the AOL technologies referenced in this
presentation, please visit dev.aol.com
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