With the advancement of various social networks, messaging systems, communication tools and blogging packages, even though efforts have been made to consolidate these into packages, there’s still massive opportunity out there for further advancement.

We’ve got programs like TweetDeck or Trillian that try to bring together several networks and systems, but we are still missing the all seeing eye. I believe there’s massive potential out there for a program to bring together everything, acting as a hub for all your online personalised needs. And I’m not just taking about social networks; email, appointments, task management – your virtual digital world.

I was hoping Google Wave would go some way toward this, but in actual fact it merely tries to replace a number of these systems (while leaving some well alone) and I don’t think we’re at a stage where we’re ready to give these systems up yet, at least until a decent replacement is available (& Google Wave does not seem to be it).

The potential being; in the same vein as a program such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic, but much, much more powerful, with the potential to bring through and consolidate all information, streams, contacts, discussions, pictures and preferences into one master program. Microsoft did it with computers – who’s going to do with online systems?

Sound a bit scary? One program bringing everything together in one area for centralised management? Well we’ve kind of been doing this in the software and OS area for years. I don’t see any major concern.

Obviously there are the standard privacy concerns that go along with any personal data holding system online, but we’ve given up so much information to Google already anyway why should we mind? (our search patterns, website visitors, email contents, places we travel, and on and on…)

In my mind I don’t see how we are going to drastically advance in these areas unless we can bring these systems together. It’s the next BIG opportunity. Rather than adding features here and there, you still have to login, setup and manage multiple systems, and it can typically be the same information you’re managing across multiple networks multiple times.

The scope and potential for a single system is extreme.

A program that brings in your music history and preferences from last.fm or spotify, knowing what music you like, connecting to what friends are listening to, suggesting new artists and genres to try, up-coming gigs in your area that you might want to attend tailored exactly to your musical tastes.

A program that connects through and pulls out all your social network information, updates and feeds into one area. Friends & family information, photos, news, event and birthdays, all centralised in one area.

A program that imports all your various instant messenger details, allowing you to communicate through text or voice across any messenger network through one contact list, without the overhead of having to manage multiple programs and accounts. Linking through to all social network and other information.

A program that connects through with your online calendar and appointments, as well as pulling in events and birthdays from contacts across social networks to fully synchronise systems.

A program that imports emails across various accounts all into one area, filtering out work and friend information.

A program that manages tasks around work, contacts and home – relating back to calendar and contact information.

Just some of things that could be done. I’ve got a bit of a way with this through Google Calendar & Contacts, but we are still a long way off; it’s quite disjointed but is about the best we can do until things pull together more.

I know the complexity of building and managing a system such as this is high, but the payout of having all of this information manageable in one area would be priceless. All of your contacts completely synced together, communication available from anywhere in the world at any time, with all of your history and information readily available. A change in one system updates across all.

End of line.

I’ve added some initial data, once I’ve got a few weeks to play around with (and another couple of sites) I’ll publish a review of the system with all my thoughts and findings

Android & Linux offer free solutions, open ended, open source, allowing unlimited dabbling and customisation to those who are interested.  Allowing anyone in the world to play, edit, create and modify.   An open system in which anyone can lend their knowledge.  One system on a mobile device, one on a desktop/laptop.

The question is, is there a clear winner? Is there a right or a wrong way to implement a software system? Will two of these solutions be doomed to failure in 30 years time and two succeed for world domination of their market?

I think it can be categorised much clearer – open vs. closed software systems.  In these cases, the software is the OS of the device.  Socialism vs. Capitalism?

Windows as we know already has a massive head start over Linux, but that’s not to say Linux isn’t making some good headway.   There is still a long way to go, but I can’t help but think that on an unlimited timeline, the open source, free solution will always win.  Why should we continue to put up with one company’s buggy, delayed, and lacking solution, when a solution that hundreds of companies and individuals can all work on will always perform much better.

The fight between the iPhone and Android is going to be a little closer.  With much closer release dates, there isn’t the sweeping dominance of one solution over the other – Android uptake is beginning to increase and as more and more handsets become available it’s likely to be massive – why limit yourself to one locked OS and one handset when you can have the choice of 15 android handsets and be able to customise it as you please?

It seems to me these locked systems are doomed to failure.  As well as having to turn out a considerable profit in order to be sustained (luckily Microsoft have has massive dominance for this), they need to sell themselves as something better, when in fact the systems are much more restrictive, if (at present) a little more ‘gimmicky cool’.

Open ended systems in which anyone can tinker and optimise, take on and invest in, on an unlimited timeline will always result in a better solution – a system everyone can have the opportunity to contribute to for free, as opposed to a few hundred or thousand individuals within a company which needs to pay it’s employees.