Technology Review (MIT) 2008 TR10: Offline Web Applications

The editors of Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation, have announced their annual list of the 2008 TR10, the 10 emerging technologies poised to have a dramatic impact on the way we live. This year's TR10 includes some technologies that aim to solve critical problems, others that represent whole new ways of looking at problems, and a few amazing feats of engineering that have created something entirely new. "Offline Web Applications" is one of those 10 technologies. Kevin Lynch, chief software architect at Adobe Systems, is featured in the list.

Cloud computing -- so called because it involves software that resides in the "clouds" of the Internet -- has caused a "tidal shift in how people are actually creating software," says Kevin Lynch. Kevin Lynch envisioned hybrid applications that would allow users to take simultaneous advantage of the Interne­t and their own machines' ­capa­bil­i­ties. Lynch's team started work on the concept in 2002 and launched Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) in beta last June. Java is another example.

Reference: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging08&id=20245