Michelle Murrain, The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative

Like many consultants, I deal with different kinds of data every day. These can be divided into four different types: data that needs analysis (income and expenses or web site hits, for example), data that is actionable (e-mail, to do lists, phone messages), data that needs to be accessible in a moment (client phone numbers, web site passwords), and data that can sit untouched until I need to find it.

Between my multiple computers, and my penchant for Web 2.0 applications, I have an unfortunate multiplicity of data locations, which I usually manage to back up, when I remember they exist. Of course, just about every single data type has its own interface: my address book holds addresses, a web application holds project management data, my hard drive is full of documents, and of course, my e-mail client is full of unanswered email.

I’m a science fiction fan. Science fiction lets us wish for all sorts of wonderful things. I remember a story where the protagonist had been out chasing aliens. He comes home, and a dulcet voice says something like, “You have 15 new messages. 10 are from colleagues, 3 are solicitations for products you are likely to be interested in, and 2 are from your mother. Which would you like to hear first?” Of course, this dulcet voice could also call anyone, tell you about anything in the past, and bring up any long lost document or photo.

We’re not there yet, not by a long shot. I have a hard time explaining to my clients when we’re scheduling lunch why I have to wait a minute or two while Google calendar loads. I have two different (and incomplete) address books, because I’ve recently migrated off of Mail for Mac to Thunderbird, and the two don’t integrate. The list, of course goes on, and goes on for each of us, I’m sure, and that’s a lot of data. What are really missing, of course, are the connections. Won’t it be nice when science fiction moves closer to reality? I worked for Acme Nonprofit (12 documents stored) 6.5 hours this week (Jane Doe, 413-444-5555, main contact) providing $xxx this month (reversing negative cash flow), and they also visited my website 10 times (especially that whitepaper on data standards).

My hope for “Web 3.0” has nothing to do with connecting with other people: Web 2.0 is doing a stellar job at that (and there’s what we might as well call Web 2.5, currently being pushed forward by folks like Facebook, where all that social connectivity is finally being integrated.) My hope is that Web 3.0 –- or Computing 3.0, since a lot of it will have to be located locally –- will connect my data. I don’t need the dulcet voice: just give me a decent interface to find everything I need, exactly how and when I need it, and in a way that shows me how everything connects. Then some science fiction author can start figuring out what we need next.