These are waves of technology adoption overlapped. So there are some companies that are still looking for their virtual business cards, while others are already living in the web.
This is an unfiltered placeholder for a concept I have been thinking about. The utility of the web in the 90s was content. It could be to spread one-sided information. Websites were like virtualized versions of business cards, newspapers, and gossip magazines. We had web chats, forums, and messaging platforms, so we also had social interactions happening through the web. Still content, but no longer one-sided. It started with a few folks talking on forums and evolved to where every 50-year-old person chats through the internet. Talk about crossing the chasm. Everyone creates. Everyone consumes.
With mobile technology, the internet became a place to interact with other people. Usage of internet peaked.
With the pandemic the internet has become a place to work. A place to provide services, a place to collaborate and to communicate with clients. If we think of the internet as a place, content becomes just a fraction of it. What we need is experiences. Interactions that affect the environment, to be affected by it, continuously.
We can provide professional services through the web, e.g., as live or recorded videos, on platforms that mimic the flows of those services when provided physically. We can use AIs to build a logo (Looka) or a mockup (PlaceIt). Instead of a secretary, we can have Calendly organizing our agenda. And we can all interact with a newer member of our teams: ChatGPT.
Designers already live in Figma. Read it again. They don't "read Figma" or even "use Figma", they (almost literally) live there. Figma is their toolbox to work, and it's their community, where they collaborate with other people on their team, clients, or even strangers - think of the Figma community.
With that in mind, where is the place for the developer? We have GitHub and npm, which are mostly one-sided and content-based. We have Discord and Dev.to, where social interactions happen. We have platforms where developers can find gigs and interact with clients. These are nice and sparse. We are creating a place for the developer to live. The developer's toolbox to work, a place for them to collaborate with teams, clients, and even strangers. This is our vision for Webcrumbs.
Top comments (1)
"The web has become a place" - This is SOO true.