servers…they’re not just for websites anymore…

Post 2 - rack it up.

Knock yourselves out…and don’t worry, we didn’t forget the top-10 goodies.

In one of our late-night coding sessions at Nerditude HQ, we got around again to the subject of explaining ourselves. We manage to fall into this discussion a lot lately, as it seems that most folks experiencing us for the first time have neither read the same sci-fi books we have, nor watched the same anime. I guess it does make sense that not everyone can have enjoyed the same misspent youth we did. Heh heh…

It’s a shame really, because had they wasted as much time as we did consuming tattered paperbacks, and watching badly dubbed “cartoons,” we might have a common shorthand - an essential ingredient in easily propelling the AppleSeed Networks pitch. What we get instead are questions like:

Q: So, how’s this like mobile-darling-of-the-minute, Company X?
A: In general, it’s completely different…

and

Q: I’ll be able to download this onto my Razr, right?
A: No, not unless Moto is reading our email…

The inevitable conclusion of our late-night HQ pow-wows is usually that we re-realize there are a couple of major leaps that people seem to need to make to really understand the problem that AppleSeed Networks is trying to solve.

Q: So, this is like a better, smarter, cellphone, right?
A: Uh…sure, but there’s more, a whole lot more.
Q: Cool, so does it play mp3s?…

So, let’s take one of those leaps, one bigger than the one we addressed in June.

The Leap:
Forget everything you know about web servers
– they ain’t just for websites anymore.

Let me explain. Most folks, when they think about mobile handsets and services, tend not to associate them with web servers or web hosting, unless it’s in the context of mobile web browsing. A user flips open a handset, launches Opera (or whatever mobile browser she fancies), uses GPRS or WiMax or whatever the appropriate network bearer may be, and connects to a website which is really just a web server that delivers web pages. Lotta technology in that sentence, but for us, very little of it is relevant.

You see, the going logic in both mobile and internet industries is that web servers are for publishing or delivering or serving content, usually to vast numbers of semi-anonymous people, and always through the browser-du-jour. Granted, some of the Web 2.0 social software initiatives have begun to rewrite that logic (Furl, del.icio.us, last.fm), introducing the idea that servers can be used for other purposes, but, in the end, the intent is still to publish, to deliver or to serve content to that vast number of semi-anonymous people, through a web browser.

Now, for the what if…

What if we thought instead about a web server that was intended to satisfy only one person, YOU.

You might want to extend it to publish or deliver or serve to millions, but that’s really your choice. You’ll have the tools to do that. But the main reason this server exists is to learn about you, to discover things for you, to anticipate your needs and to inform you about things that matter to you.

It’ll give you a beat to think on that one…

…got it?…

Good.

So, let’s add another layer to that idea. What if this new server was fully integrated into the cellular phone or PDA that you carried around with you everyday, so that it was always available.

Now, wouldn’t you rather carry that in your pocket?

Time to shut up now and get back to the code.