The Disruptive Power of Online Apps

It wasn't that long ago when schoolchildren still vied for their teachers' approval by volunteering for the choice chore of clapping blackboard erasers together. Everyone can remember the joy of the teacher picking them out of a sea of waving hands for the honor of choking on a cloud of white dust.

Lawrence M. Walsh is editor of VARBusiness and GovernmentVAR. He also writes the Tidal Waves blog.

The days of the blackboard are just about over. Within the next decade, the next generation of adults will have only the faintest recollection of what a blackboard was. By 2017, most classrooms will have undergone the evolution from blackboard to whiteboard to digital projector to digital signage to--dare I say it--some futuristic 3D display technology.

Secondary school systems across the country are seeking the rich multimedia education experience that digital display technology provides. The best choices boil down to a large screen and digital display (read "The Chalkboard Evolution"). The affordability and availability of these technologies have made even uttering the word "blackboard" in the modern classroom seem archaic.

A truism of technology evolution is that each new generation will disrupt and eventually displace existing technology, as we're witnessing with digital displays and blackboards today. As a former education reporter, I started thinking about what will come next when I got wind of the display technology trend. Specifically, there was one recent announcement that pushed my thinking into overdrive. Of course, I'm talking about Google.

Last month, Google released Gears, a package of development tools that will enable its free, Web-based applications to run offline. I think we call those client-based applications, but there are major differences. Google Gears, the search giant says, will enable apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets to run even when they're not connected to the Internet.

Google has made serious inroads in the education market, offering its suite of basic yet functional productivity applications to schools virtually for free. The appeal is simple; Google gives licenses away to students and only charges professional users. This is a substantial savings over the Microsoft Office Home and Student edition, which retails for about $150 a seat. Sure, you don't get all the bells and whistles that come with the latest version of Word or Excel, but 90 percent of the user base doesn't take advantage of most of the features in Microsoft's apps anyway.

If Google Gears is successful, what comes next? Will Google release its developer kits to other online app developers to enable their Web-based software? Will the open-source community follow suit with its own version of Gears? And will these low-cost, stripped-down, once-Web-based apps eventually disrupt and displace the heavy client software we all use today?

If I were Microsoft, I'd be clapping my erasers clean and drawing up a plan for the next innovation to disrupt my own technology.