Week 7: Software Above the Level of a Single Device

This week's Web.20 pattern is called "Software Above the Level of a Single Device".  The PC is not longer the only device that can be used to access the internet (and, therefore, all the useful and interesting applications thereon).  It therefore behoves the developer of a Web 2.0 application to consider which devices will users want to use when accessing this service, where (geographically) they could access this service, and what extra opportunities we can explore given this information.

Our interactions on the web are increasingly spanning all devices and methods of communication.  A photo taken on a mobile phone can be sent by email to a friend who turns it in to a satirical motivational poster using a  free web application, which is in turn uploaded to Facebook where it is now accessible to all his friends.  Each of these services (email, de-motivator, and Facebook) are now accessible anywhere because they are increasingly being designed to work on as many devices as possible, especially mobile devices.

Twitter and Facebook

Twitter and Facebook are two of the most successful Web 2.0 applications.  A huge part of that success is due to their being designed for use on mobile devices.

Today, smart phone developers explicitly advertise that Facebook and Twitter are accessible from the device as part of the devices services.  This Android, actually has a Facebook button under the regular QWERTY keyboard: simply press it, and you can be connected.

That's not all.  Twitter and Facebook are connected to each other such that any post made on twitter can be automatically  shared on Facebook as well (where it's easier to have an in depth discussion, if such a thing is warranted).

Twitter:

Automatically on Facebook: