12 October 2002

Links Fablets Digital Harbor The specific direction these richer, browser-based applications will take remains to be seen. This inaugural wave of vendors is clearly struggling to conceive platforms with enough value potential to entice enterprise-grade customers to fork over hard-earned budgetary dollars. For the large number of companies that spent the late '90s invested in retrofitting Web front-ends onto their enterprise applications, the dubious value proposition may appear to overshadow the merits. Admittedly, many of the capabilities from today's innovators may ultimately take root directly within next-generation Web browsers, or they may be embedded natively within operating systems and application servers. The risk reward here, though, is favorable. And in due course the capabilities coming to the forefront of rich Internet application development portend great promise for improving the sophistication and interaction in data and security-laden transactions. By maintaining a focus on important features, such as an interdependence on XML, adoption of Web services and workflow mechanisms, and a moderate learning curve for developers, rich Internet application vendors will ensure bonding with corporate IT ideals and enable developers to bring to market more useful applications in less time. posted at: 10:46:11 PM   Building a Better Browser. This piece in InfoWorld underscores the emerging trend towards rich Internet applications. It's great to see industry recognition for the category, though it still appears that people are just scratching the surface of what "rich" really means. Macromedia believes that RIA's (rich internet apps) combine content (text/graphics/audio/video/motion), applications (complex UI, web services, biz logic and data) and communications (real-time n-way media messaging and shared data). While there are other companies focused on putting more power on the client, I haven't seen anything yet that shares this approach/philosophy to RIA's. While smaller vendors and efforts attempt to break through, Macromedia community designers and developers are blasting forward with innovative RIA's in the thousands! [Jeremy Allaire's Radio] Hmmmm......, follow up on the smaller vendors mentioned. posted at: 9:34:24 AM

© Copyright 2003 Pete Cole. Last update: 30/03/2003; 02:12:23.