1 post tagged “software”
I want 3 things from the software I use to create and organise things:
- Does not bite me, and ideally inspires me to create better stuff
- Works when I do not have network access. I don't want to miss out on valuable thinking time while I am travelling.
- Syncs to the network, so that I can quickly collaborate with other people, or access the content from an alternative device
For most of us the story started with desktop applications like Microsoft Office. They have always delivered on my second requirement, but after almost a quarter of a century they continue to fail the first requirement.
Many of these applications have recently added features to share content online, and read it from mobile devices etc. Generally each new feature that helped with requirement 3 hindered delivery against requirement 1!
In recent years companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have rebuilt many traditional 'desktop' software features on the web. We are spoilt for choice of calendars, writing tools, databases, and can even create a web spreadsheet. These products do a great job against requirement 3, and generally beat their 'desktop' predecessors vs. requirement 1 too, but few have any features to help with requirement 2.
No doubt the people who design this stuff think ubiquitous wireless network access is not far away, and have decided to ignore the need for off-line access. I beg to differ.
We've had mobile phones for more than 20 years, but I still can't get a reliable signal on the U.K. west coast rail mainline. While Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines are blazing the way with Internet in the air, most airlines don't offer seat-back TVs. Many of my favourite places on the Suffolk coast have no prospect of receiving a digital radio service, and only get a landline phone service because of BT's universal service obligation. I imagine that the Internet will eventually reach all these places. But as each joins the networked world I will loose another place for uninterrupted thought. If we eventually have Internet everywhere I will havce responded by turning it off for a chunk of the time.
If Google et al would only add some off-line features I expect lots of us would have a happier life for some time to come. Alternatively, we could wait another quarter of a century for desktop software to become easy to use...
