An All in One Application?

Jumping around from one network to another, reading one blog then going to another and jumping back and forth to your email client seems like a waste of time and technology. The push for "open" is surrounding us yet the silos of information and connectivity remain. Or do they?

This week we witnessed the work of The Floating APP Company, creators of GoYoDeo. The company first released a "floating application for video distribution with custom stations and each having up to 20 channels per station. Things have changed a lot since its original release.

We asked the question, "What Next?" Drew Bourke responded "Soon everything you do on the internet today can will be done without having to jump around from one site to another. You won't even have to open a browser. Our applications will launch directly from your desktop or your cell phone and soon "Your Station" will even be embedded within your cable box for TV viewing. Our mission is to empower people to do more in less time using every social tool imaginable, even those not yet in the market"

We'd say these objectives sound like the ultimate Socialution

How Fast Will Things Change?

Economists think about reality in terms of markets. In practice, a market is just an abstraction, and drawing the limits of markets out of actual information is a difficult task.

Consider the social networking market today and one can easily conclude that the rate of change makes it difficult to actual put boundaries around the definitions of “the market”.

Systemically speaking, some well differentiated markets are transformed into new ones, because of changes in the technology and the demand that cause the products or services of the original markets to end up by serving identical needs to the same customers. In such a situation, firms are faced with big opportunities and big potential drawbacks

Those that is able to correctly foresee the future developments can gain an important head start and position themselves so as to obtain an important competitive advantage. On the other hand, making irreversible investments in the wrong technology can seriously threaten the competitive position of a firm. This is the dilemma all of us.

Social Technology is Converging

There are different technological segments currently operating independently but on the fringe of convergence. Consider what is happening in the telecommunications industry. Consider what is happening within the social media space. Consider what is happening in the cable broadcasting space

Now consider on line social networking technologies. Everything is rushing to “open”. Open means transparent distribution and ultimately technological barriers become transparent. When you consider new developments within the social space” common themes are becoming clear. These include:

1. Aggregation of “social news” generated by users is an attraction, i.e. Socialmedian
2. Aggregation of friends activity is an attraction i.e. Friendfeeds and twitter
3. Aggregation of social contacts is an attraction i.e "friends connect”
4. “Aggregation of blogs by topical category is an attraction, i.e. Alltop”
5. Social Broadcasting is an attraction i.e. YouTube, GoYoDeo etc.

Convergence usually comes from outside an existing system and led by those watching the fringes. Our conclusion is that the obvious is starring us all in the face but the chaos of the moment distracts us from seeing the obvious.

From our perspective convergence is not a question of will it happen but rather an issue of when. What is missing to usher convergence in?.

What say you?