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Through the fog... Better connecting users to technologies
The hope that tablet PCs, peer-to-peer and more can take us up a level

By Quocirca

Published: Thursday 05 June 2003

Computing and communications technologies often change our lives - but rarely as much as their providers claim. But, asks Quocirca analyst Jon Collins, what chance the next generation of offerings?

The history of information technology has not been without its problems. Even its name is a give away – the 'information' in IT suggests our focus has been more on storing stuff than on what we can do with it.

There have been some remarkable advances in technology – even the processing power of the average mobile phone would have filled a room just a few decades ago – and these have been accompanied by mind boggling leaps of understanding. The internet, or at least the web, bears witness to how, when things come together, they do so very fast indeed and with dramatic impact. Don’t be fooled by the current downturn (we’re not allowed to use the word 'recession') - the web was and still is a remarkable, world-changing advance.

All the same, despite these leaps and bounds, it feels sometimes that we are still sloshing around in the primeval slurry of technology. For organisations large and small, there are no right answers. The latest enterprise offerings provide infinite scope for customisation and enhancement but first we must understand what it is we want to achieve, a task that seems impossible without spending the GDP of a small country on management consultancy.

The flip side of packaged applications offering a one-size-fits-all approach requires us to somehow squeeze and pummel current working practices to fit the intricacies of the product.

It’s not all bad news: at either end of the scale, the products (in isolation or combination) do just about everything that might be required of them. However, there would appear to remain a gap between need and reality. The question of functionality seems to be largely solved, meaning that today, the issue lies not with the question “What can I do with the computer?” but with “How can the computer best fit with the way I want to work?”

This issue is not new but it remains the unsolved problem of computing, namely how machines integrate into the very human environments that require them. People need to interact with computers and people need to interact with each other.

So is this about user interface design and collaboration software? Well, sort of, but remember this is an unsolved problem. Nobody (well, perhaps Bill Gates) would maintain that the Windows interface is the epitome of user interaction design, an example of perfect harmony between man and machine. The same could be said for Palm OS or any number of mobile phone input mechanisms. Nice try but no cigar.

Similarly, users of groupware packages such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook know too well that the term 'collaboration' is a misnomer for 'email' and 'calendar sharing'. All of these things have a long way to go if they really want to make their users’ lives easier.

Fortunately for the IT industry, computer users are a loyal bunch, otherwise they might have binned the whole lot years ago. Companies talk in terms of 'leveraging assets' and 'maximising return on investment'. What they really mean is “We’re stuck with it now, we can’t afford to replace it and so we’d better make the best of it.”

And, truth be told, is there really anything that can be done outside the research labs? Funnily enough, yes.

Here, at Quocirca, we’re not great believers in silver bullets. We would be but we’ve seen too many and the werewolves are still there. However, things are moving forward. Rather than putting all the money on a single horse in the race, it is worth looking at how the race is evolving.

In previous Through the fog... articles we have looked at the evolution of voice technologies and how these are coming of age given the arrival of hardware platforms that can actually support them. We have also looked at predictive text messaging and MMS. And more recently, we’ve been road testing tablet PCs and their suitability for various application types and looking at peer-to-peer collaboration tools such as Groove Networks. And it is in these areas where things have been getting interesting and indeed disruptive in no small measure.

First, the tablet PC. At first glance, a gadget-lover’s must-have, with the I’m-a-laptop-no-I’m-a-workpad gimmick available at the flick of a screen. Second comes the handwriting recognition, which works like a dream, picking up genuine handwriting rather than some reductionist character set. Out of the box the applications seem useful but not compelling, making one wonder whether the tablet really is no more than a gadget. Surely there must be more that can be done with this device other than its operation as a keyboardless version of a standard laptop?

Indeed there is, if applications such as Mind Manager are anything to go by. Traditionally, Tony Buzan’s mind mapping techniques (think spider diagrams on speed) have translated into adequate, yet somehow lacking, on-screen applications. Mind Manager is one of these. Its capabilities for managing and sharing multiple maps notwithstanding, there is still nothing quite like getting out a fresh piece of paper and a pack of coloured pens to really get the best out of mind maps. After all, they are all about stimulating the right side of the brain, and the combination of a computer screen, keyboard and mouse will not have the stimulating effect for everyone.

Enter the tablet, armed with the latest version of Mind Manager. Maps can be drawn as they were meant to be drawn, they can be edited with the swish of a stylus and then can benefit from all the additional facilities that electronics can provide. So far, so good.

Second, Groove Networks. 'Invented' by Lotus Notes founder Ray Ozzie, Groove takes all the best elements of peer-to-peer file swapping packages (think the now-martyred Napster and its offspring, Kazaa) and uses them as a foundation for a business information sharing environment.

All the standard stuff is there, such as shared files, calendar management and discussion lists. But these are just scratching the surface. In addition, there are numerous plug-in tools including document reviewing, meeting management and project planning. Drill down further and there are visual modelling, CRM and, you guessed it, collaborative mind mapping tools available.

Groove is not without its problems, for example the way in which files are shared makes it an uncomfortable tool to use in low-bandwidth environments. However, like the tablet PC it does make possible things that used to be uncomfortable to do, such as enabling both office and home workers to access a single pool of information. Also, because there is no server, a multi-user Groove environment delivers a level of availability out of the box: if you lose your hard drive, those vital files are just a download away.

The tablet PC and its synergy with Mind Manager, or the application of peer-to-peer networking with tools like Groove Networks, are not just examples of how technologies can evolve, and neither are they the only examples, but they make the point. By putting new interaction mechanisms together with new collaboration mechanisms we can start to present ways that will help us towards the delivery of real solutions in this as-yet uncharted human layer of the technology stack.

**Quocirca is a leading, user-facing analyst house known for its focus on the 'big picture'. For a full summary of its activities see www.quocirca.com, or reach the company's founding directors by emailing quocirca@silicon.com.

Also in this series: Through the fog... Predictive texting Through the fog... Business continuity and disaster recovery Through the Through the fog... Wireless email at work dilemmas Through the fog... Storage as a service Through the fog... Buying an application server Through the fog... Corporate content management Through the fog... Automated speech recognition Through the fog... Public Key Infrastructure Through the fog... Vendor-channel relationships Through the fog... What future photo messaging?

For Quocirca's 'What's the fuss about...?' series for silicon.com, see this page

And for their earlier 'Surviving the Recession' series, see this page.