Stephen Downes

Trey Martindale digs up this link to server.com, a site that rpovides hosted applications - such as an RSS aggregator, email service, or discussion board. In the wake of such popular services as GMail, Yahoo Groups and Bloglines there ha emerged a school of thought that such online services represent the 'operating system' of the future. Maybe - it's certainly a point of view I take seriously - but this week's Blogger outage shows the downside of hosted applications: the lack of control, the lack of back-up. If the service goes down, if the company goes under, if the terms and conditions change, you, the user, are out of luck.