One Interface to Rule them All (part 1)

July 7, 2008 by 14 Comments

I’m on a quest (as I’m sure many others are) for the One Gold Ring – a single interface that will be my functional portal into the web. Right now, I go to too many places (iGoogle, Yahoo Mail, Google Reader, Flickr, Pageflakes, WordPress, Twitter, Plurk, Amazon, eBay, etc., etc., etc.) to “do web stuff,” and the fragmentation of these services is inefficient and frustrating.

For many years, I’ve mulled over ideal software interface designs, and have an electronic trail of litter behind me consisting of many boxes and flow diagrams exquisitely mapped out in…well, Powerpoint. In a prior post, I tossed out some very early-on concepts for an ideal social media interface. But the holy grail for me is much larger – I want to see a meta-interface that helps me conduct most of my on-line life.

Why do we need this? Well, fundamentally, the tools we used were designed only to fulfill specific purposes. They weren’t designed for me, to pull my life together, but to do one or two things. However, I don’t need another gardener or cook or chauffeur. I need a Chief of Staff. For a throwaway branding term, I’m going to call it MetaMee – because it’s about me.

What would this MetaMee interface be like? Here’s my highest level list:

    MetaMee would consolidate the main functional activities I have on the web into one simple interface.
    MetaMee would be a hybrid off-line/on-line system, built in part using Adobe Air or Google Gears or similar.
    MetaMee would allow storage and controlled release of varying levels of my information to different people/applications/businesses/other entities.
    MetaMee would talk to existing platforms (such as those listed above) in a widget-ized fashion.
    MetaMee would use intelligent bot/crawling technology to find, recommend, and deliver what I want, so that I spend less time searching.

How would this project get done? Here’s where it gets interesting. I’m not a programmer. And I know that there are tons of talented bloggers/socializers out there who are loaded with great ideas and talents far beyond mine. So I’m just going to put out a series of posts this month, outlining my preliminary ideas for this “dream” application, and invite all of you to discuss, refine, contribute, ideate…let’s see if we really mean what we say about social media. I think this app ought to be crowd-designed, and then someone will take the bull by the horns and start making it. Ready?

In the next day or two, I’ll post part 2 – the five main functions that I foresee in a MetaMee-type app.

Links to the entire One Interface to Rule them All series:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

plus…The Ideal Social Media Interface

Related post: Share Media vs. Tell Media

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Filed under Blogging, Networking, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, User design Tagged with , , , , ,

About Steve Woodruff
Steve Woodruff is a blogger, a Connection Agent, and a consultant in the pharma/healthcare industry. He specializes in helping people and companies make mutually beneficial connections.

14 Responses to One Interface to Rule them All (part 1)

  1. Jane Chin says:
    July 7, 2008 at 11:39 pm

    first we need something to stem the rapid and almost uncontrolled proliferation of web 2.0 twitter friendfeed tumblr plurk posterous identi.ca toolou facebook linkedin plaxo myspace socialspark -type/like apps! or pretty soon i’ll have to microoutsource sign-ups instead of signing up for all of them myself.

  2. Pingback: One Interface to Rule them All (part 2) « StickyFigure

  3. Karen Swim says:
    July 8, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    Steve, I believe you will have no shortage of thoughtful ideas and support for this holy grail. I am often frustrated by the lack of centralized administration for managing my online work life. In addition to apps galore and apps that manage a portion of the apps, and passwords and emails to match each..oh well you know the drill…it’s cumbersome and irksome.

  4. Pingback: One Interface to Rule them All (part 3) « StickyFigure

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  7. Gr33n3gg says:
    July 22, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Hmm, very interesting post. Great blog 😉

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  9. Allan says:
    September 30, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    That’s an interesting idea. Do you think that Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web can lead to this MetaMe web?

  10. mdurwin says:
    October 1, 2008 at 11:04 pm

    Steve,
    Swing over to gathr.me. Leave your email. I’d love to give you a peek at what we’re up to.

    @mdurwin

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  12. Rob Farrow says:
    December 11, 2008 at 1:56 am

    Give a look at chi.mp, contact me directly if you have any questions. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the offering and our commitment to owners rights. We will be re-lunching the chi.mp site in a few weeks with major releases to the product soon after.

    My email is rob@chi.mp I am the VP of Marketing and a Co-Founder of chi.mp and would value hearing your input.

    Thanks

    Rob

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