An interesting hint at where the browser and web 2.0 are heading.
One of the Firefox developers told an audience at a conference in New Zealand that the next version of the browser will provide support for offline applications.
While he didn’t offer any details (that I could find), the implication is that you would be able to work on web-based applications like Google Docs or a wiki in the browser without being connected.
And evidently that’s just the start as networked computing moves to the concept of “software as service” rather than as product.
It makes a whole lot more sense than what we have now in our overly large school district (and undoubtedly in most others).
Tens of thousands of individual computers with various flavors of Office, storing files on any combination of hard drives, removable drives, and/or local servers.
Having both applications and file storage located centrally, accessible from anywhere, easily shareable, would be both more efficient and less expensive in the long run.
(Especially if our IT folks don’t insist on running the show themselves.)
Of course, the 800-pound gorilla in Redmond can’t be happy about the potential decline of their lucrative software franchise.