The easy answer to the question is exactly where the cloud was heading up until NSA made the news. The problem was never the the hardware nor is it software as the author reckoned, it is the data. At the bottom of this is a collection of person preference data collected and consumed by each and everyone of theses devices.
API solves the interoperability problem, the standard of data format etc.. But driven by the desire of the power of influence consumer, the API and interoperability are small problem will be taken care in the process, and are not the reason that current state of our digital life has called behind of technology. It is the data especially the sharability of the data that has been in a slow progress. Who can collect data, where to store and wholes can use that data, are all problems pending serious attention and technological innovation.
The classic resolution to the data problem, evidently google and others are working on, is to resolve the interoperability by monopolize the data "sensor" market, with its ubiquitous existence in hardware and software platform. The stack covers a range of cloud providers, platform providers and consumer product manufactures. All of these were working according to the plan, then BAM!, all a sudden came along the whistleblower and nobody wants to trust cloud with their person data thereafter.
It does not matter anymore if one company can win through the competition and control the data market like Bill Gates controlled the PC market 20 years ago, not unless there are convincing data protection and sharing technologies invented. Ironically, this used to an opportunity for government to step in and set the rules to pave the way, but not this time when government self is being questioned too.
The key to the problem is not interoperability between systems/products, but the data sharing/use/storing etc., something like a monopoly of the play field will not be able to resolve this time.
[+] [-] bitcuration|12 years ago|reply
API solves the interoperability problem, the standard of data format etc.. But driven by the desire of the power of influence consumer, the API and interoperability are small problem will be taken care in the process, and are not the reason that current state of our digital life has called behind of technology. It is the data especially the sharability of the data that has been in a slow progress. Who can collect data, where to store and wholes can use that data, are all problems pending serious attention and technological innovation.
The classic resolution to the data problem, evidently google and others are working on, is to resolve the interoperability by monopolize the data "sensor" market, with its ubiquitous existence in hardware and software platform. The stack covers a range of cloud providers, platform providers and consumer product manufactures. All of these were working according to the plan, then BAM!, all a sudden came along the whistleblower and nobody wants to trust cloud with their person data thereafter.
It does not matter anymore if one company can win through the competition and control the data market like Bill Gates controlled the PC market 20 years ago, not unless there are convincing data protection and sharing technologies invented. Ironically, this used to an opportunity for government to step in and set the rules to pave the way, but not this time when government self is being questioned too.
The key to the problem is not interoperability between systems/products, but the data sharing/use/storing etc., something like a monopoly of the play field will not be able to resolve this time.