Webwork
An Application Portal Vision

Introduction

The Webwork Study Group was formed in December 1999 at the request of Greg Papadopoulos to develop a vision for application portal computing in the future. We began by studying the user population most likely to benefit from an application portal -- novice internet users who have yet to utilize productivity applications. We found people liked how computers brought them together with others through e-mail, instant messaging, and chat rooms, even when they were asking for help on solving computer problems. On the other hand, users were frustrated by the complexity of personal computers and their inability to successfully complete tasks or find information. Even retrieving files that they had created themselves was a problem. Thus, our vision is focused on two main themes:

• Leveraging the portal to connect people
• Providing easy access to related documents and people

This report presents our vision for interpersonal computing, the user experience for the next generation of application portal computing. The designs we have developed are conceptual, intended to help readers visualize the possibilities of what could be. Many details are yet to be worked out, but we hope that we have sketched a concrete enough picture to spark serious discussions about what Sun should be doing to position ourselves as innovators in this space.

Opportunity

Several factors converged to prompt the formation of the Webwork Study Group. Questions about the future of Sun’s desktop were beginning to resurface. Sun’s acquisition of Star Division added productivity suite functionality, but the applications still need to be integrated into a desktop user experience. The advent of the Sun Ray product brought the promise of reaching new classes of less sophisticated computer users, but we lack a desktop that addresses their needs. Plus, the current public scrutiny on Microsoft might create a window of opportunity for innovation in the desktop user experience without being immediately threatened by Microsoft dominance. Meanwhile, futurists in the computer industry became attracted to a vision of consumers being able to “bank their data with experts” as we now bank our money with professional, trusted institutions. This vision included consumers having access from anywhere to both their applications and their data. In addition, by using an application portal, consumers could be freed from system administration tasks of installing applications, upgrading software, and backing up data.

Application portal computing is clearly a big win for certain segments of the population. For example, the increased mobility of computer users has led to the demand for access to applications and information from anywhere. The education community, which includes students, teachers, school administrators, parents, and volunteers, has enormous problems trying to maintain hundreds of copies of software packages with minimally trained personnel. Small businesses also spend valuable resources trying to maintain computer systems for their employees, usually without the aid of an expensive system administrator. In addition, the growing population of senior citizens, who could benefit enormously from the social interaction provided by Internet access, are too overwhelmed by the complexity of operating and maintaining their own personal computer to take advantage of the technology unless they have a family member around to help them.

The Webwork Study Group has attempted to answer the question of what an application portal service targeted at these market segments should look like in one to two years. What features will not only address these consumers’ needs and goals, but will attract them to try out and remain with the service? How can a portal service remedy some of the problems these people face with today’s personal computers? And how can we lower barriers to entry for those people who are not currently computer users? From a technical perspective, the group has also attempted to assess what it would take to implement the features that we suggest, given both the current state-of-the-art and Sun’s current technologies.

What’s in this Report

To answer these questions in a systematic way, the Webwork Study Group carried out a number of different activities. First, we ran a series of focus groups that included members of the target populations described above. The major findings from these focus groups are discussed in the section Target Users. In parallel, we also interviewed a variety of Sun employees with an interest in application portals to understand the issues from a company perspective. Next, we tracked and examined the existing, related technologies as they emerged. This included both internal and external offerings. For a sampling of these technologies see Appendix.

Armed with this background information, we began a period of brainstorming to develop ideas for a new application portal service. During this period, we wrote many usage scenarios from the perspective of our target users. This evolved into some conceptual user interface ideas that are presented in the Features section. The Technologies section describes what would be involved in implementing each of these features, including the necessary infrastructure. We end this report with some Options for moving forward. These are intended as a starting-point for discussions about what Sun’s role should be doing in order to this application portal vision.

  Target Users