Two weeks ago on T3, a few ideas were relayed on the proper use of email. A key one: write less — emails don’t need to be “epic literature.”
Bill Gates recently launched a message of such Homeric proportions to Microsoft employees that The Economist termed it an application: memoware. These memos were so long even self-described “Microsoft Geek Blogger” Robert Scoble was taken aback.
But if you slog through the emails of Mr. Gates and his CTO Ray Ozzie (thanks to Dave Winer), you can catch a glimpse of where software is headed.
Short answer: to the Web. Or, in terms of those in the know, Web 2.0.
As The Economist points out:
At heart, said Mr Ozzie, Web 2.0 is about “services†(ranging from today’s web-based e-mail to tomorrow’s web-based word processor) delivered over the web without the need for users to install complicated software on their own computers. With a respectful nod to Google, the world’s most popular search engine and Microsoft’s arch-rival, Mr Ozzie reminded his colleagues that such services will tend to be free—ie, financed by targeted online advertising as opposed to traditional software-licence fees.
Web 2.0 must really be something when it has a primer, a conference, and coverage by the hardest working blawger in the business.
What does Web 2.0 mean for the law? Dennis Kennedy and Matt Homann have some early thoughts.
I’ll save mine for next Tuesday.