Show 18: Web 2.0 Spawns Office 2.0 [33:08]

Published: June 24, 2006, 11 p.m.

In the mid 1990's Oracle and Sun Microsystems developed and promoted\nthe concept for a Network Computer (NC).\xa0\nUnfortunately, the revolutionary idea did not make sense offering a\nfraction of the functionality provided by a regular Personal Computer (PC), at\na similar purchase price and the networks of the day could not support it. Recent\ndevelopments, including greater adoption of high-speed internet, a new\nprogramming model for web-based user interfaces called AJAX and a killer application for it \u2014 Gmail\n\u2014 are now bringing new life to this concept. The idea is pretty simple: use a\ngeneric web browser and a set of online services to provide all the\nfunctionality needed by a computer user, removing the need for any application\nor data for that matter to be installed on the computer itself. Thus is born Office 2.0.