But aside from better devices, the biggest change is going to have to be in the way the web functions. Gone would be today’s interface with the web through browsers where we interface with one program or one website at a time. The way we work on computers today is too linear and while we may have many programs running, each of them is separate, and we dip into them one at a time.
The wireless world has already shown us a partial path to the future by virtue of having moved to a world of apps rather than URL websites. But apps still suffer from the same problem of being used one at a time, and there is very little linking between apps today. There are apps today that want to dip into other apps to grab existing data, but I normally get the impression that this is more for the benefit of the app company than it is for the user. I constantly run across apps that ask if they can have access to my contacts list on Facebook or LinkedIn and I always say no. Unless it’s some sort of a communications app, these companies are just fishing for more leads to try to sell their product. We don’t need more advertising linking, but functional linking.
There is an attempt in the app world to establish better links between apps. For instance, Google’s App Indexing and Facebook’s App Links are the start of an effort to create what the industry is calling deep linking, which are ways for apps to usefully share data for the benefit of the user. There are a number of other software companies working in this area.
Today, content providers build custom cross-linking libraries to fulfill this function. The cross-linking process makes it possible to move seamlessly from one app to another. But such links are custom-made and are very specific to a small set of apps. The links share data fields so that a customer using one app can be sent to a second app without logging in again and without having to provide basic data about who they are.
But what’s really needed in the long run, if we are going to get to a seamless infosphere, is a software system that automatically allows a user to shift from one app to another without ever having to log in. The whole idea of logging in has to go away. We need apps that can authenticate who we are and that don’t have to ask us basic questions about who we are. So another thing that is needed for a seamless infosphere is some sort of foolproof authentication. Apps need to be able to trust that we are who we say we are.
But the flip side of that is that as users we need to know that apps won’t spy on us and suck out every bit of information about us. When apps can talk to each other without our permission, we need to have some sort of privacy matrix established that defines what we are willing to share and not share. And the apps must follow the rules that each of us establishes. So another thing needed for us to feel safe in the infosphere is some sort of trustworthy privacy rules that all programs we interface with will follow.
One of the early dangers I see from the linking process is that it could become very proprietary. If Google, Facebook, or Apple develops a suite of linked apps that work well together but that don’t link to outside apps, then we will have taken a step backwards and will have undone the intent of the recent net neutrality ruling. That ruling ensures that large ISPs don’t restrict entry of new competitors into the web market. But that ruling does not protect against the large content providers getting so large and ubiquitous that they kill off competitors by locking them out of linked systems. So eventually we are going to need net neutrality rules for content providers.
So we are almost there for a ubiquitous web. All we need are a total migration to apps, better wearable devices, foolproof authentication, better privacy screens to protect our data, rules that allow any app to safely link with others, and net neutrality rules that don’t let any content provider control the infosphere. Come on Silicon Valley. We’re waiting.