Postfully Yours

For the last few decades, the “desktop” metaphor has dominated computing. We treat information like paper documents, software as pencils, pens, staplers, all designed to fit a single human hand. That metaphor is eroding as we move towards web-based systems. While no new metaphor has yet replaced the desktop, the best candidates seem clustered around the concept of conversations.

This change is obvious in much of the online world. It’s a cliché to refer to blogs as conversations. Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and others are really only definable in terms of these new metaphors (what precisely would constitute a Facebook document or a Twitter desktop?).

Even the humble word processing document is adjusting to these new concepts. With online office suites, multiple users can work at the same time, link data into dynamic sources, and connect to external tools and outputs. Its no longer about the pile of papers (which may be odd coming from a company which produces precisely that).

Peeling the metaphor back, there are many elements to conversations which suggest entire areas of activity. The notion of open inclusion. The fundamentally collaborative element (you can have your own desktop, but conversations with yourself tend to lack a certain… richness). The way that a conversation can serve as the core to other activities. The very rules and norms of conversations among services and users are still being established.

One key in the way that we think about Postful has been of expanding conversations beyond the boundaries of the digital web. It still feels good each time we hear about someone using us to connect with a friend or family member.

Another element is the way that we work with and add value to other services. It’s not a matter of dominating the conversation, just adding a piece to it, enriching it.

Thinking about enhancing conversations rather than trying to build better tools and documents isn’t just a matter of following the latest metaphoric trend. It helps you to identify the core of current challenges and opportunities.

The metaphor is changing because the underlying reality has changed. The opportunities to develop that new reality can be seen just by thinking about how our service world still falls short of the metaphor. However it develops, it’s clear that we’re all participating in the redefinition of our basic concepts of computing.