From the start, Kynetia has sought to stay in the vanguard of specialized Internet software development, and Web 2.0 is therefore a natural evolution for us, particularly in the areas of software development models and the User Experience.

Based on Tim O’Reilly’s definition of what Web 2.0 is, we may divide new features into three main categories:

• Social models
• New software model
• Enhanced user experience

Must a Web 2.0 project necessarily include these three components? Not at all. Web 2.0 has in fact become a term that embraces the whole range of significant advances made in Internet technology in recent years. While not all new developments need necessarily support the social side, all of them include major Web 2.0 components related with software development and the user experience of interaction with the applications developed under the umbrella of the new standards.

Social models

The greatest impact of Web 2.0 is unquestionably the inclusion of the end user as a creative force rather than as a mere consumer. The consequence of this is the Long Tail effect and its use as a business model.

To simplify, the Long Tail allows the operation of business models based on the fact that many users will create content that is accessed by very few consumers, while the conventional scenario was one in which a few users (normally the employees of portals, newspapers and so forth) created content for a large number of consumers.

One of the best examples of a business model based on the Long Tail is Google’s AdSense. Under this model, anybody can place an advertisement in Google. So, your neighborhood hairdresser can advertise, along with other local businesses. Since Google is (relatively) good at segmentation, this advertisement will be seen only by the (few) nearby residents. Hence, the advertisement will not be widely viewed, since the number of potential consumers is very small in comparison to the Internet as a whole. Even so, there are millions of hairdressers all over the world, and Google reaches all of them. This is the opposite of television advertising, where a few brands place spots that are intended to reach millions of consumers.

This is a clear example of how the end user (in this case the hairdresser) comes to generate content (the advertisement) to reach only a small audience of potential consumers. This is a very useful tool (compared to the alternative of mailing) and it is cheap (because the charge per click on the advertisement is tiny), but it is also of enormous interest to Google, because the search engine’s business depends on a mega-diversified line with extraordinary capillary effects.

Logically, this business model can be extended to other areas. Blogspots, wikis and other tools are the leading exponents of Web 2.0, but the models are in a constant state of flux. Though not all businesses support a social model, social models are one of the three pillars of Web 2.0.

New software model

It is precisely in the field of new software development models that Kynetia has gained its most valuable experience. Software has ceased to be an artifact and has become a service. Initially, this may sound trivial, but it in fact represents a revolution in the approach taken to software development today.

• Open standards. Today’s businesses require ever closer cooperation with partners, customers and other players. Furthermore, this cooperation is usually technology based, and the firm’s software must therefore work with the applications used by a whole range of different players. This requires the use of open standards, such as XML and SOAP as interfaces, and SOA as a strategy.
• Continual change. As markets keep evolving and competitors innovate, the firm must adapt quickly to change. Closed requirements are no more, and releases follow on each other in a matter of months. We have reached the stage of permanent beta. Numerous releases are needed with a short time-to-market and a high launch frequency. This does not, however, mean throwing quality to the winds, leaving the betas full of errors and bugs. What it does mean is that software development iteration has speeded up, and the product must make new functions available to users as soon as possible. It is also necessary to monitor user behavior in real time, make intelligent use of the results and adapt software developments as part of the learning process.
• Integration. As well as providing software as a service for users, customers and suppliers, integrating products within their processes, it is also necessary to include services in the software developed. This means not only creating open interfaces but also becoming a user of the interfaces designed. Integration is currently shifting from the presentation layer (until recently, for example, a firm wishing to inform its customers of the whereabouts of their order would include a link in the website, perhaps to the DHL or UPS site) to the business logic layer (thus, it is now the firm’s application that directly informs the customer of the order status without the need to leave its own site).
• Multiple devices. The PC has become just one more device allowing the end user to access websites and applications, but it is by no means the only one. In addition to supporting different desktop platforms, such as Windows, Macintosh and Linux, it is necessary to support numerous browsers (Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.), which are handled by radically different devices, such as PCs, Mobile Telephones, PDAs, Televisions, etc.
• Architecture. A strong development process based on agile methodologies is necessary to support these requirements, as well as an architecture that allows organized and coherent management of diversity.

At Kynetia we believe in standards-based strategies allowing software to be made into a service, thereby opening the software up to a world of cooperation and ongoing change. To this end we use a flexible development methodology and sound architectures to support changing needs.

Enhanced User Experience

At Kynetia we have always believed that the user is one of the pillars for any software development, not least because users are key players in the majority of software solutions. Since Web 2.0 is marked by the enhancement of the user’s experience through new interfaces, we see it as a turning point in the approach taken to interactions between the user and applications.

If we have discussed software in terms of the transition from “software as artifact” to “software as service”, in the case of the user interface there has been an equally deep-seated shift from the old concept of the “website” to the new one of the “Application Interface”.

Conventional websites are reloaded over and again each time the user clicks on links or buttons, even if 90% of the page content does not change. However, the consolidation of Ajax as a standard for the creation of interfaces has now made it possible to refresh only that section of the page that needs to change, rather than the whole thing. And this is not all. Interactivity has been substantially improved, and the use of widgets provides the user with easier, more intuitive interfaces, thereby enhancing the experience. This improvement may also be considered in economic terms, because it slashes costs by reducing training, help-line calls and errors, at the same time as raising productivity and making it less likely that the application will be ditched.

Google gave a clear boost to the use of new standards through its Gmail and Maps applications under the AJAX umbrella. This had an enormous impact, opening the way for the current period of unprecedented innovation in user interfaces, making this one of the pillars of Web 2.0.

Kynetia works on the creation of advanced user interfaces based on AJAX and supported by a battery of standards. Above all, however, our interfaces are designed from the standpoint of the user, and the concept “advanced” should therefore does not mean “complex” but “intuitive”. Our goal is to create intuitive, simple and efficient interfaces.