The Copernican Software Revolution ("Users are the Killer App")

Web 2.0 technology continues to shine the light on users. Luis Derechin, JackBe CEO, and I spoke on this topic several weeks ago at the AjaxWorld 2007 event in NYC in a presentation entitled "The User is the Killer App". I've been so busy working on getting Presto, our Enterprise Web 2.0 Platform and Mashup Environment out the door that I've been remiss in my blogging...well, I couldn't help but follow up on our talk with some comments, since I feel so strongly about the evolving role of users in every facet of next generation software.

Let me make the my point with a little review of history: In the year 1543, in what was considered a very controversial proposition, the Polish-born scientist Copernicus published a theory contradicting long-held views and conventional wisdom, proposing that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the Solar System. Such a model is called a "heliocentric" or sun-centered system.

In the Universe of software architecture over time we've seen numerous discussions focus around server-centric and client-centric architectures. From mainframes and dumb-terminals through the 1980's (server-centric), to Client-Server in the 80's and 90's (more client-centric), to Web-based in the 90's and into 2K (back to more server-centric), and RIA/Ajax-based applications today (back to more client-centric).

I think focusing on client or server in this equation is missing the point. Sure, the pendulum swings back and forth between the relative importance of client and server, but the pivot point from which this pendulum swings remains unmoved above...Imagine this pivot point as the user! Successful software must focus on the User, an approach best termed a "user-centric" or user-centered system.

Software should be user-centered in it's design and development, user-driven in its approach to integration and empowering in its collaboration models and support for ad-hoc, situational applications and mashups.

The evolution of User-Centric Software:

Last year I had the privilege of hearing Mark Hurst, Founder and President of Creative Good, a premiere User-Experience consulting firm, present on customer-focused strategies and he touched on a similar topic. Mark made the point that companies often fail to realize that the customer is the center of their universe.

As we’ve matured as technologists, our industry has continued to adopt a more user-focused approach to software development, an approach referred to now as Agile software development. Extending this focus even more broadly to create more “user-centric” and “user-driven” software is the next step in this natural evolution.

The term “Web 2.0” means different things to different people, but all definitions include one common theme: a strong focus on users. Consider the following features of the next generation of web software :

• User-driven content: the user of the software having more control over what data sources are utilized as part of their applications. It also implies more dynamic access to these data sources.
• User-driven selection/configuration: the software having more control of how information is labeled, categorized, as well as content layout, filtering and look and feel.
• User-driven integration: the user having more control over how various, disparate data sources are combined and transformed as well as how these data sources are utilized and manipulated within an application.

The overall emphasis is on a very dynamic user-driven model.

As we like to say at JackBe: "Users are the Killer App"!