My name is Emily Etinger, and I am a senior in the College of Engineering. I am an independent major, studying Operations Research & Information Engineering, Information Science, and Business.
This semester, I am taking 21 credits (6 courses). In order to stay on top of all of my various assignments, I set out in search of a website where I could easily outline my course load for the semester. I looked for a site where I can enter in all of my assignments for each course, along with all due dates, and then print out my weekly tasks.
I am a fan of the ever-growing world of Web 2.0—more specifically, the synchronicity of online applications that I can use to stay organized. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any website that featured an application that suited my particular needs in this situation. However, I did find some new sites that I might find useful some time in the future.
Every so often, I search online for the latest additions to the Web 2.0 world; I am always pleasantly surprised by the number of new free applications available to the world. Internet users and developers are constantly pushing for faster data that is accessible anywhere in the world, regardless of the users’ physical location. Even though I was not able to find the application that suited my needs at this particular time, I am confident that it will become available some time in the future.
The constant creation of Web 2.0 websites is encouraging to the world of online application progress. In contrast to companies that create productivity software that sit off-line, such as Microsoft Office, I know that I can search the Internet each week and find new software; I don’t need to wait four year or so for new versions of the same solutions to appear.
Why do these new applications appear at an exponential rate? What inspires web developers to spend endless hours creating online applications that may never turn any profit? Does the Internet provide entrepreneurs with the perfect outlet for presenting their ideas to the largest possible audience? Or does the tremendous amount of new additions to the online world hinder a potentially good idea from succeeding because of the overflow of information?
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Hi, Emily. I am intrigued by your blog topic. >.<
Actually I wrote a short paper for one of my courses last semester discussing search engines in web 1.0, web 2.0 and web 3.0 , cause I also have some interest in these exciting changes in our WWW.
These years, it seems to have become an open secret that so far web 2.0 gained just popularity but not profit. Finding out a successful revenue model is the first imperative for most web 2.0 websites.But as a matter of fact, not all web 2.0 websites are non-profit. Here's one famous example: Cyworld, South Korea's most popular social network. It's basically like a blend of Blogger, Flickr, and videogame like avatars. With a critical mass of users, Cyworld gained $150 million in 2004 only, which makes it a good example for revenue analysis. Cyworld had introduced the mini-room, a three-dimentional virtual space - and the mini - me, and avatar that user could place in her mini-room and send out to visit others . There're some main revenue resources for Cyworld: one is by selling acorns, which customers perchased with real money for decorating their mini-rooms. This accounts for 70 percent of the revenue. Another one is mobile services. People sign up to access Cyworld via cell phone for free, paying only upload changes. Also, there're revenue from allowing business to setting up its owe mini-homepage and creating direct relationships with consumers.
Thinking carefully, we can find out that some hints of these revenue models in the mass of newly added applications in facebook, which reveals the efforts nowadays web 2.0 websites are making to seek for revenue. Maybe we should have more patience and confidence in their development. =)
Emily,
I think that you bring up a very good point about the benefit of synchronicity with respect to online applications. While serving to help individuals stay organized, such a feature also eliminates the time an individual would have spent consistently updating information for each respective application.
With respect to your quest for the ultimate student organization website, I too can't think of any that would suit your needs. However, I can think of a few applications such as Mozilla Sunbird and Schedulizer, which individually may not meet all of your needs, but together could serve as a force to be reckoned with.
To answer some of your questions about why new applications appear at such an exponential rate, I think it has a lot to do with publicity. If there were a fee imposed on individuals for using such applications, I believe only a handful of people would be willing to experiment with it. However, since it is free, more people are inclined to use it, thus generating a buzz for the product if it proves to be worthwhile. When thinking about what inspires web developers to spend endless hours creating online applications that may never turn any profit, I think it has a lot to do with the potential that such developments have for serious returns. I'm sure that the Facebook guru did not imagine that Facebook would grow into such a crazy. But the fact is that it did. Thus, I would say that the Internet does provide entrepreneurs with the perfect outlet for presenting their ideas to the largest possible audience in a relatively risk-free manner. It may be a little hit-or-miss, but I think that by having the applications available at no cost, the developers get constructive feedback from users. This feedback could potentially be what makes an application really take off.
I am also a fan of how far Web 2.0 has come in such a short amount of time. We've gone far beyond the novelty of a more engaging online experience and this newer technology has become something that many users depend on for everyday productivity. I think that part of the reason programmers continue to push out new Web 2.0 development without a focus on profit has to do with how young and exciting the technology is. Those who are programming the applications are pioneers in the field.
I wonder if Wallace could have predicted some of the ways in which Web 2.0 has changed the way many people think about the Internet. The merging of one's personal computer and the World Wide Web will certainly continue in ways that we have yet to imagine.
@Emily
I'm actually working on an organizer that does pretty much what you're looking for. It's funny, there was actually an article on the front page of the Cornell Sun the other day about a startup called MyRooster whose aim is basically to do the same. For various reasons they don't have much chance of succeeding, but it's interesting that there are multiple people with the same idea at least.
This seems to be one of those situations where a lot of people have the same idea, but where the design/implementation is difficult enough that the intelligence of the teams is sort of the limiting factor. A few years ago everyone was trying to make apps that would locate people with similar interests using GPS, but it took someone as smart as Sam Altman to finally pull it off with Loopt. Fortunately the challenges of making such a webapp are significantly less than the challenges of making a mobile phone app, no matter how difficult the design issues are In any event I would expect that someone will come out with the perfect organizer for students within a year or two.
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