(This talk was presented in Vilanova on 26/jun during GUADEC 2006 - see abstract - download presentation in ODP or PDF)

We can broadly say that Computing in the XXth century has been an activity to Help Humans Get Results. The computer was designed as a tool to increase our capacity and speed for working, and the desktop was the cutting edge invention to obtain a Graphical Interface of a System. In other words, the desktop wanted to represent "My Computer". This metaphor of the desktop made easier to XXth century users to tweak with the basic components of computing: hardware, data, users, software, local networks and, finally, the Internet.

GNOME did a good job dealing with this complexity, bringing a whole generation of happy GNOME users. But... is this enough to make users happy in the XXIst century? The hypothesis I'm sustaining is: NO. Let's see why.

First of all, in the XXIst century computers are not only devices for increasing our productivity. They are everywhere and we play frequently with them. And the tendency is to increase presence and usage. Computing in the XXIst century is more an activity to Improve People's Activities and Relations.

People in general don't know what a computer system is, nor they need to know really how it works. The references to the mechanics of the system are artificial, useless. Instead, people understand what is their context and what are their needs. The classical concept of "users" becomes a primary dimension: People & Me. Data and all its formats becomes a semanthic Stuff based not on readable extensions but on types of content: texts, images, videos... The hardware and its hidden and obscure components are identified almost as alive individuals in the form of Gadgets, where the classical computer is just one friend more - and for many people the PC is not even the primary device. The concept of Software and the classical tree of applications leave protagonism to Actions people can perform with these technologies. And the several Networks are integrated kin a notion of continuous Online Space with no clear borders with the internals of our system and the sphere of communication between our own devices.

Even when the change of concepts might be seen as a simple change of names, the resulting metaphor is radically different: the former Graphical Interface of a System (⁓ My Computer) becomes a Digital Interface of Myself (⁓ Me). Where we had a Desktop now we find an Alter Ego.

How we move from metaphor to the other? It is a process that has already started, and many voices are claiming for a similar move. Some ideas suggested in this session at GUADEC 2006 were:

• Amplify the current GNOME About Me, introducing FOAF data and relating to it all my preferences and tastes. A next objective could be to make of it a XXIst century CV Generator.
• Amplify the Properties dialog of documents, allowing to define relationships with other documents and availability/access to other people and devices.
• Integration with social software (services like Orkut, LinkedIn, Flickr...) and P2P networks (Gnutella, the Donkies...) solving the problem of ownership and automating the upload to multiple spaces.
• Tags and preferences central management, shaping my Alter Ego in the online space and therefore conditioning my steps there i.e. getting automatically a customized experience when browsing a website for the first time, without needing to log on remotely (since I'm logged on locally).
• Local & online spaces integration, basing the distances not on physical spaces but on levels of access.
• Synchronization with devices and servers, and automation of all the data transfers. As the storage capacity increases, people should be less worried about where is their data stored as far as they can get their stuff when they need it and when it is sensible to want it.
• Other examples were mentioned in the abstract.

During the conference there were at least three sessions advocating for changes of the desktop metaphor and experience in a similar direction:

• Feeds, Syncing, Mobility and Desktop Applications (by Tuomas Kuosmanen and Henri Bergius) showed a bunch of new usages and projects in a stage of planning and production, stressing a core factor I had missed in my talk: location.
• Gimmie: Panel Revisited (by Alex Graveley) showed a working prototype of a desktop metaphor based more on actions, stuff and people rather than the classical concepts of software, data and users.
• Creating Passionate Users (by Kathy Sierra) not only stressed the importance of exciting users, but also suggested in a way that users of the XXIst century won't be passionate using the elements and paradigms of computing in the past century.
• Off schedule there was more conversation and activity around this topic, for instance the works and discussion with Mirco Müller, Karl Lattimer and the mentioned Alex Graveley. Also the BoF session about the gnome.org revamp showed that there is a will to obtain in the mid term a more continuous and integrated user experience between the GNOME desktop and website.

And now I see that Luis Villa has just posted some ideas in a similar direction, stressing the problem of ownership and leadership the desktop faces versus the growing universe of web applications.

Additional links and pointers are welcomed.