The Changing Face of Online
Communities and Communications
Future of Web
Applications Edwin Aoki
Conference
Chief Architect, AOL
Feb. 20, 2007

In the
Beginning…
1

Where it all began
From its
beginnings,
community has
been a key
promise of the
Web
Courtesy: CERN and the Internet Archive
2

Agenda
• Current state of web applications for online communities and
communications
• Near-term trends
• Thoughts and implications
3

Webmail is the leading driver of page views
Email Svcs (1089
sites)
9.32%
Search Engines
(2322 sites)
7.32%
News/Media
(6080 sites)
3.40%
Business and
Finance
(1030 sites)
0.57%
All Others
79.38%
Source: Portal property Rankings and Market Share by Vertical
Hitwise (www.hitwise.com), May 2006
4

Chat and Instant Messaging take to the web
Web based IM and chat tools allow users to stay connected
without the need for a dedicated client, giving up very little
of the experience, thanks to modern web UI technologies.
5

“Obvious” community applications on the Web
Blogging
Message Boards
Social Networking
6

And some less obvious ones…
Reference
Auctions
Commerce
7

Predecessor of the modern mashup?
Courtesy: WebRing/GeoCities/Yahoo! and the Internet Archive
8

Industry
Trends
9

Disaggregation and syndication
• Users seek out the experiences and communities
they’re interested in
• Allows for highly tailored and focused experiences
– Fulfilling the promise of the “Long Tail”
• Content and service providers don’t control the
context in which their applications are used or seen
• Can be a boon for application providers, but also a
challenge
– YouTube, Photobucket, Flickr
10

Web apps, too will become syndicated
• For content, it’s “embedding”, for applications “mashups”
• Community and Communication Tools are key candidates
• Embedding community and/or
communications tools increases
engagement and drives value to
content providers
– IM (shown)
– Message boards
– Ratings and profiling
• These interactions will increasingly
take place in situ, rather than in
dedicated “destinations”
11

Community goes mobile
• Content and Community applications will follow users to
where they work, play, and live
12

Sometimes Second Life comes first
• The world between online and virtual blurs rapidly
• “Real world” brands are trying to establish an identity in virtual worlds
– BBC, Toyota, Vodafone, AOL, just to name a few
13

Our Shared
Responsibility
14

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”
• As technologists, we must make sure that the tools and services we
build can be used safely and effectively
• Most users aren’t aware and/or don’t care about the implications of
being online
– Security/Privacy
– Spam
– Social Effects
• Decentralization is particularly disruptive for the traditional “trust
model” of applications
– “Who to trust” is a complex question when services are provided by multiple
providers
– Distributed identity management systems such as OpenID complicate this
even further
Quote: Spiderman, 2002
15

Bridging the “Digital Divide”
• Applications we build must be accessible to all
The visually, audibly, or motion impaired
–
Older generations
–
Different socioeconomic backgrounds
–
People of developing and emerging nations
–
• Everyone benefits when online communities
represent a wide range of backgrounds, cultures,
and interests
16

The Future is in the Balance
• Power and Ease of Use
• Social Benefits and Commercial Interests
• Online and Offline Interactions
17

Thank You
Edwin Aoki
aoki@aol.net
To learn more about the AOL technologies referenced in this
presentation, please visit dev.aol.com
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