The Other Road Ahead

In 1998 Paul Graham and Robert Morris sold their start-up company Viaweb that made software for building online stores for $48 million. They renamed it Yahoo! Store. In 2001, Paul Graham wrote an article on the future of software, "The Other Road Ahead." He writes, “[we] should be able to get at [our] data from any computer...or client.” Fast forward 9 years to today, users are able to get data from their email. We can also access personal photos/videos that we've chosen to post on Facebook or YouTube. However, how convenient would it be if we had access to our Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, personal photos (that we choose not to post on Facebook), and music on the Web, without having to lug around our laptops? For instance, I don’t want to have to email myself Word documents or upload them onto a flash drive in order to access them on a separate computer. Why can’t I access them via my own personal Web-based software or “Finder” (for Mac users)? If this becomes a reality, the disappointment and agony my friends have had to go through when their computers crash will be avoided. “I lost everything!” they’ll say. And not-so-calmly react, “My f***ing computer crashed! I lost my photos from Europe, all my music and 3/4 of my dissertation! S**t, mother f***er, damnit, f**********k!!!!”, etc. To avoid this kind of frustration, our Word documents, PowerPoints, etc. should be stored on the Web. As a teacher, I have to bring into school my laptop that carries my data, including class worksheets, PowerPoint presentations composed of lessons of Spanish verb conjugations, and downloaded YouTube videos (YouTube is blocked at the school’s network). Then I have to send myself whatever I need from my laptop via email, and download the data onto the classroom’s computer so that it can be projected onto the whiteboard for my students to see. This process needs to be simplified. Period.