Show 18: Web 2.0 Spawns Office 2.0 [33:08]

In the mid 1990's Oracle and Sun Microsystems developed and promoted the concept for a Network Computer (NC).  Unfortunately, the revolutionary idea did not make sense offering a fraction of the functionality provided by a regular Personal Computer (PC), at a similar purchase price and the networks of the day could not support it. Recent developments, including greater adoption of high-speed internet, a new programming model for web-based user interfaces called AJAX and a killer application for it — Gmail — are now bringing new life to this concept. The idea is pretty simple: use a generic web browser and a set of online services to provide all the functionality needed by a computer user, removing the need for any application or data for that matter to be installed on the computer itself. Thus is born Office 2.0.