Hard day at the office

19 October 2006

The IT industry occasionally suffers from bouts of existentialist angst, and the Office 2.0 Conference last week was no exception. As vendors lined up to demonstrate their next generation technologies, one expert dared raise the question: Does anyone out there actually care?

Part of the problem with things like Office 2.0 is that most people in the industry only have a vague understanding of what it is, and most people outside the industry don't even know how to pronounce it ('Two Dot Oh?' 'Two Oh?' 'Two?') As Shel Israel, a PR guru turned author and consultant on social media, pointed out at the event: 'If you leave this room, this industry, you don't hear anyone saying 'I really need an Office 2.0, a Web 2.0' or even caring about it.'

So what's all the fuss about? In broad terms, Office 2.0 is a subset of the 'next generation' of the Internet, conveniently known as Web 2.0. It's all about taking the data and applications you'd normally keep on a PC and providing them as services on the Web, which you and others can access through a standard browser. Online services like this should be easier to maintain (because you don't have to manage and upgrade lots of PC-based applications) and they're good for people working in different locations who want to collaborate. And handily, a lot of the services today are also free.

As panellists at the conference explained, Web 2.0 changes the rules of the software game. The emphasis is on designing services specifically for the end-user, rather than for an IT department, so ease-of-use is everything. It's also about interactions, rather than just transactions - think of MySpace and YouTube. These ideas aren't that new - Israel pointed out that the whole concept is really what the early visionaries of the PC were talking about - but the products coming onto the market are.

So how much interest is this all generating outside the Office 2.0 enthusiasts club? Not a lot right now, judging by the attendance figures at the San Francisco conference - there were only 25 end-users out of 450 attendees. But those early converts provide a glimpse into the future. Ismael Ghalimi, CEO of Intalio and the event organiser, said one small manufacturing company actually paid for two people to go to the event, arguing that if they could find just one online tool to help them work more efficiently, the conference fees would pay for themselves. Significantly, the company works from three different locations, which is where collaborative applications really come into their own.

And which companies sent the most delegates? Step forward event co-sponsor SAP, and Microsoft. Even if the clamour for Office 2.0 services isn't exactly deafening today, that tells you something about where the industry giants are laying their bets.

By Keith Rodgers