In a paper I wrote last year, I had a look at e-mail as a tool for knowledge workers and argued that it is being used so intensively, because it is both personal (it belongs to the user), private (no one else can access it if it is not shared) and personalisable (it can be configured to ones personal needs and work style). Most importantly however I find is that it combines storing information with sharing it: There is no other system in which people can organise their stuff in a personal space and share it with others so easily and flexibly.
I wonder what the consequence is: Shall we improve email clients further and further to make them even more flexible tools that then "can do everything"? (This paper from Xerox PARC would call that "overloading".) Or will we develop other tools? Or is the question irrelevant, as the new ways that we invent to share digital information will be integrated into what we call "email" today and the boundaries will be blurred?
The answer is: You shouldn't. Zeta is targetted at novice computer users that want to do things like "write and print a text" "save the pictures from my digital camera", "email", "surf the web" and want a reliable, stable machine that does that. They don't even know what an "operating system" is or what it is exactly that they are buying! They just see the promise to get a machine that is easy to use, fast and stable and that's why they are getting it. (I think Zeta will be able to keep that promise - I had a look at it at CeBit, when I bumbed into a sales presentation of by accident.)
Zeta is already being sold on German Shopping Television. They are just showing the applications and the interface and emphasize how easy and fast and stable everything is. There is no talk at all about that it is Linux, that it is an operating system, that you could use other applications than the pre-installed ones... in fact they show that there are "more than 200 applications pre-installed" and argue that "you can do everything because everything is already there - no need to download software".
Zeta is clearly targetted at novices that want to do some things with a computer but don't want to think about the computer itself. They might have experience with windows but probably find it too complicated or are afraid of unstability and insecurity, that is why they look for a "different computer".
I am quite sure that Zeta will be a success. There are millions of people out there that just want to use a computer for some simple things and are happy when it "just works", runs stable and doesn't require much configuration. For us it might seem ridiculous, but I can see how it meets the wishes of many novice computer users.
The Dozomo team has manipulated the Webproxy at the WOS3-Conference so that when you query Google, you are redirected to Dozomo. The problem is that your search parameters are not passed on. So users are forced to enter their search query a second time and post the dozomo-form. Then they get to google (or whatever search engine they specified).
Bad enough, but it gets worse: When you now modify your search query on google, you are redirected back again - and again, your search query is not passed on!
Querying the web from the conference is a pain at the moment. If I had shares, I would sell them.
Slashdot Mirror
In a paper I wrote last year, I had a look at e-mail as a tool for knowledge workers and argued that it is being used so intensively, because it is both personal (it belongs to the user), private (no one else can access it if it is not shared) and personalisable (it can be configured to ones personal needs and work style). Most importantly however I find is that it combines storing information with sharing it: There is no other system in which people can organise their stuff in a personal space and share it with others so easily and flexibly.
I wonder what the consequence is: Shall we improve email clients further and further to make them even more flexible tools that then "can do everything"? (This paper from Xerox PARC would call that "overloading".) Or will we develop other tools? Or is the question irrelevant, as the new ways that we invent to share digital information will be integrated into what we call "email" today and the boundaries will be blurred?
The answer is: You shouldn't. Zeta is targetted at novice computer users that want to do things like "write and print a text" "save the pictures from my digital camera", "email", "surf the web" and want a reliable, stable machine that does that. They don't even know what an "operating system" is or what it is exactly that they are buying! They just see the promise to get a machine that is easy to use, fast and stable and that's why they are getting it. (I think Zeta will be able to keep that promise - I had a look at it at CeBit, when I bumbed into a sales presentation of by accident.)
Zeta is already being sold on German Shopping Television. They are just showing the applications and the interface and emphasize how easy and fast and stable everything is. There is no talk at all about that it is Linux, that it is an operating system, that you could use other applications than the pre-installed ones... in fact they show that there are "more than 200 applications pre-installed" and argue that "you can do everything because everything is already there - no need to download software".
Zeta is clearly targetted at novices that want to do some things with a computer but don't want to think about the computer itself. They might have experience with windows but probably find it too complicated or are afraid of unstability and insecurity, that is why they look for a "different computer".
I am quite sure that Zeta will be a success. There are millions of people out there that just want to use a computer for some simple things and are happy when it "just works", runs stable and doesn't require much configuration. For us it might seem ridiculous, but I can see how it meets the wishes of many novice computer users.
I was wondering about that. On their Website ist says:
"All the search engines at my fingertips"? Sounds like the Web to me. I wonder why they did not build a meta-searchengine instead.
The Dozomo team has manipulated the Webproxy at the WOS3-Conference so that when you query Google, you are redirected to Dozomo. The problem is that your search parameters are not passed on. So users are forced to enter their search query a second time and post the dozomo-form. Then they get to google (or whatever search engine they specified).
Bad enough, but it gets worse: When you now modify your search query on google, you are redirected back again - and again, your search query is not passed on!
Querying the web from the conference is a pain at the moment. If I had shares, I would sell them.
Ross Mayfield did an experiment on Social Network Analysis with blogs once which I found quite interesting.
In Luxembourg, the minicash-system has been running for two years now and is pretty popular.