From Intranet to Intraverse

Tim O'Reilly has been heavily criticised on several grounds. His concept of Web 2.0 has been compared to Thomas Friedman's ten "flatteners" of the world in that both O'Reilly and Friedman take a collection of technologies/phenomena, develop an umbrella term for these, and enjoy the fame following their "discoveries."

While we may view Web 2.0 as a mere collection of technologies (RSS, wikis, weblogs, etc), it would be wrong to argue that the impact these technologies have on our everyday lives is not of significance. The benefits we have been reaping through Web 2.0 applications are countless. Take remixability as an example: by decentralising knowledge and allowing for collective efforts we can build on, alter and potentially enhance content in a cost- and time-effective manner. Usability, collaboration, you name it!

Moving on from Web 2.0, the following discussions will focus on the notion of the "Intraverse", i.e. a Virtual World for internal purposes. Virtual Worlds appear to be a natural extension of the operating systems, Internet explorers and Intranet environments we are currently using. As humans we tend to attend to, and appreciate, that which comes closest to reality.

Isn't it strange that we still work on flat, square-shaped computer screens depicting two-dimensional interfaces? More importantly: how will we explain to our grandchildren that, when we were young, we used a mouse and a keyboard rather than wired gloves and 3D-goggles to navigate through two, not three, dimensions? Apart from the technological & adoption-related constraints we are facing at current, is it not logical that our computer systems must evolve into more "real" environments? Dos - Windows - Windows Vista... We have witnessed significant momentum in the evolution of our operating systems (OS) over the past years: from writing code on a black screen (Dos), to a GUI-based OS (Windows), and now an increasingly graphical and three-dimensional OS with Vista!

What is the next stage?? More importantly: how do we expect Intranet systems to evolve? How does the Intranet of the future function and how can a virtualisation of the Intranet -an INTRAVERSE- add value and give a leading edge to businesses??