Please Write This Book Robert

June 2, 2009 · Comments

Robert Scoble at VONI want Robert Scoble to write a new book called The 2010 Web. He wrote about the 2010 Web here in a response to Kara Swisher, and the guts of the piece contains what Robert thinks embodies the next iteration of the web.

I love this kind of thinking. Robert has given some thought to what’s going on today and what should make this evolution of the web at 2010 happen. I believe that he’s got a lot of great insights here. Want to see the list?

Here’s what Robert says will be indicative of the 2010 web:

1. Real Time. Google caught the Wave of that trend today BIG TIME.
2. Mobile. Google, again, caught that wave big time Wednesday when it handed Android phones to everyone at its IO conference.
3. Decentralized. Does Microsoft or Twitter demonstrate that trend? Not really well.
4. Pre-made blocks. I call this “copy-and-paste” programming. Google nailed it with its Web Elements (I’ll add a few of those next week).
5. Social. Oh, have you noticed how much more social the web is? The next two days I’m hanging out on an aircraft carrier with a few people who do social media for the Navy.
6. Smart. Wolfram Alpha opened a lot of people’s eyes to what is possible in new smart displays of information.
7. Hybrid infrastructure. At the Twitter Conference this week lots of people were talking about how they were using both traditional servers along with cloud-based approaches from Amazon and Rackspace to store, study, and process the sizeable datasets that are coming through Twitter, Facebook, and friendfeed.

What do you think? I think this is Scoble’s next book. You?

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  • Feels like we are on the cusp of a big shift. In 2007 Robert introduced a new way to process RSS, with this video http://ff.im/3q7vu the real time web. I would buy a book about the web 2010 by Robert. I have two questions given the short horizon is a book going to be current long enough, and second are you Chris going to write about the relationship implications of the Web 2010. If so I'll send you my $50 now. Dean
  • met
    Don't fall into that trap, Robert :)
    If you write the book and it becomes popular then you will be the butt of many jokes in the future.
  • I'm not so sure, books like this get old very very quickly. It might be better to put this into an eBook or even just a video.

    I like this post though Chris, it's a sharp summary of what is around the corner. I watched the Google Wave presentation and was blown away, I can't wait to see something like that!
  • Video needs it own bullet.
  • I been wondering what all the hoopla about this web2010 I keep hearing is, to me it seems like the hype we had of web.2.0.

    It's just the net progressing anyway, we don''t need labels and names like web2.0, web2010, so the net is reflecting real life more? ... wouldn't expect anything less. ;)

    A giant real time multimedia chat room. That's all I see happening.
    Why do we need a book about it?

    Rob
  • If he doesnt, he's nuts, he has all the resources he needs and i think it would kick ass. Perhaps he could show us how to publish content with depth using the 2010 web?!

    The insights he can share are awesome, although its a bit hard to keep track of at the pace he sends out information at.

    Its especially useful to people trying to start and build new businesses.

    Great shout!
  • A book? Do we need a book? Does it have to be a book? (I'm not answering these questions,just asking them)
  • Gregg Morris
    Go ahead and write the book Robert. It will give you something to do on those nights you're sleepless before and after the baby is born. :-) And Chris is right, your insights on the next iteration of the web need to be in print. They need to be in front of more eyes than just those who see you on FriendFeed, your blog, Twitter, etc.
  • Whether a book--or to Glenn Allsopp's point of an e-book, which I agree with--the issue to me is who writes it. Robert Scoble is not the only person with such thoughts; he's merely the author of the blog post you cite.

    If anything's real about the real-time web it's the duality between writer and reader, like your post above and my comment here; both are part of the whole. So, how about a (e)book written by many, not one. Authored by a group, not a person. That would be indicative of reality.
  • Great point Ari. I'd rather read an e-book by Scoble and a mass of other writers than just Scoble. The next step in the web is expanding community, so why not have a community of writers discuss the changes?
  • Books by committee are notorious for not actually coming out.
  • Chris, I refer to Shel Israel authoring "Twitterville" and Laura Fitton et al authoring "Twitter for Dummies." In both cases, specific names are the authors but the content, for the most part, was written and/or contributed by the crowd. You can even cite the groundbreaking Michael Wesch videos on Web 2.0; if it wasn't for his classes, those videos would never be made.

    I'm not suggesting a "crowd" be the author, but your implication is Robert Scoble be the author; and that I'm disagreeing with.
  • I can see social activities be converted fully in the net. Who don't want real time? Of course we all want to socialize without the barrier of distance and time. Great information.
  • I'm betting he won't write a book, too easy to make fun of later on. But a series of interactive posts and friendfeed chats seems more like his normal approach.
  • Jesse
    Good post. i've found that things seem to be accelerating. Facebook is changing and adapting much more quickly, twitter and friendfeed are really taking off. I, for one, have found myself spending more time (gladly, not hesitantly I should add) sharing and dialoguing in real time all over the web. When I am working, when I am writing, when I am browsing the web, sharing what I am finding is now one of the FIRST things that comes to mind. "Oh, my twitter base would love to see this" or "my facebook community needs to see this."
    I dont believe we necessarily need labels like 2.0 and web2010, but i see the value in them as marketing instruments. Because Scoble is so well positioned as a theorist and agglomerator of web2010 stuff, I guess it makes sense to write a book. But perhaps in the spirit of web 2010, we should release it as downloadable web essays, each chapter 99 cents or something...or like the how to make your blog better in 31 days model...
  • But does he need to write a book?

    He propounds many of his important themes on FriendFeed and that medium seems to embody much of the spirit of the tenets he outlines above.

    (Yes, I agree he's captured something that is book-worthy. I just think there's tribute for being on FriendFeed that you can't from a book: a living, dynamic, real-time form of social intelligence).
  • DrV
    Where do I preorder
  • I'd certainly buy it. The concepts within the post are really exciting and interesting. Go write it Scoble...and I'll forget about the flight helmet ;)
  • One problem with writing a book like this: writing a book is an 18 month process, so by the time this book got on your shelves it would be 2011. Plus, at Rackspace we're putting together a community called Building43, which really is to help small businesses get into the "new web" (whatever you call it, and I agree that I hate that we always have to name things, but I especially hate using version numbers for the web because we iterate a lot faster than that) and that's taking all my effort now. Today, for instance, I'll be over at Facebook learning how they see businesses using their service. Building43.com opens on June 11, though, and you'll see elements of a "book" there, I'd love to know what you think as it opens and we'll definitely often be pointing to Chris Brogan's often brilliant points.

    Thanks for the support that I'm overturning the right stones. There is definitely something going on here. When even an organization like the US Navy is talking about Twitter and friendfeed at even the top levels you know something crazy is going on.
  • Chris_in_Canada
    I would add "Integrated", as technology progresses across a wide spectrum and socal computing technologies become more ubiqutious,, everything will become highly integrated from our toasters to our cars, eveything will have the abiltiy to talk with each other, and we will be able to tap into every aspect of our lives from just about anywhere from anything.
  • met
    2010 to me is a nightmare.
    I'll have my data segregated in the iPhone world, Xbox world and facebook's world.
    There will be 19 app stores that don't work with each other.
    There will be a "connect", "single login" feature from every service out there that only they use.

    Give me back my Web 2.0
  • Web 2010 means the future is now, eh? Do we really need to write about something that will be here in six months? That being said, I'd still buy it. :)

    To add to the conversation, I can't help but think that there is a future way to tie messages to actual ROI. To make an analogy, when I'm in an airplane I can see cars and people moving back and forth. I can't see what they're doing specifically but I can tell where they go... We can kind of see this view today, but it takes work to connect things. It needs to get clearer.

    And then there has to be a layer below that one, but just above the traffic that tracks who is seeing what and ties it back to actions. Cookies can attach to ads and track clicks, but what attaches to the blog post or the facebook fan page where I read about a company that I then bookmark and later buy something from?

    Can this idea translate on the internets some how so that companies can tie word of mouth back to actual sales? If the web is becoming a social web, no argument here, then this is an essential piece to it, IMO.

    -chris
  • I'm really excited to see the hybrid infrastructure take off. How cool would it be if you could just load up two data sets, specify the primary key between the two of them and see the wonders of data crunching?

    Yes we can do that now with Excel or Access or even our BI solution, but an automated online solution that ties everything together would be really nifty.
  • Batman
    Didn't realize he'd written a first book. If he wants to write it, and send me a review copy, then I'm all for it....
  • Should be interesting to find out just how mobile the web is going to be. He may be a soothsayer.
  • Facebook Connect and the fact that every website you register for now gives you the ability to import your network and broadcast your activity across platforms... What do you call this? Cross-platform integration? I think we'll be able to all surf the web together some day talk in real time with our friends who are visiting or have recently visited those same sites. Facebook partnered with CNN to do live commenting during the elections next to the live streams on CNN.com. It was buggy but it was a first step.
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