What are "web apps" and why do we care? You should care, as they represent a major shift in computing about to occur. But as in many things in the wheel of life, if you wait long enough everything comes back around.
When I started my career computers were huge, hulking monster mainframes that hid behind glass cages in specially air conditioned rooms. Common people never used a computer, and those that did would submit "jobs" to be run when time was available on the mainframe. A typical job might be the weekly company payroll. The job was submitted usually via punched computer cards. What you got back was your cards, and perhaps some more cards bearing the answer you wanted, and perhaps a printout. It wasn't a very efficient process.
In the late 60's, online terminals started to appear around the IBM site. These were both CRT (TV-type) terminals, and typewriter-like terminals. They connected via cables to the mainframe and accessed specialized programs that would run in the mainframe all day long. You still couldn't do any work at the terminals, but you could edit your data stored on the mainframe, submit a job directly from there, and view the results on the screen. A major step forward.
Finally, "on-line" systems began to appear which allowed the user to actually run programs and do useful work directly from the terminal - called "time sharing". The earliest of these at IBM was a system called TSS/360, which was never actually completed. TSS was replaced by TSO - an add-on to the operating system of the time OS/MVT. The most popular mainframe time sharing system within IBM was CP/CMS, which appeared in the mid-70's.
The 80's PC revolution changed all that. You now had computing capability right on your desk. But there was no IT or computer department running the computer for you and providing applications to use - you had to acquire and install them yourself. Each user had to figure out what applications they wanted on their PC, pay for them, and go through the hassle of installing them and updating them. Software companies were ecstatic because they made their money many, many times over. That's how Microsoft grew as they did.
Now, the pendulum is swinging back. With the common availability of high-speed Internet connections, programs can be downloaded into the PC easily and quickly from the web. You are probably already running web applications and don't even know it. When you are shopping on the Internet, the website you are at has probably downloaded a small program (called an ActiveX control) to help the shopping basket process. There are many services, such as virus detection, that also run from the 'net in this manner. But the major difference is that these programs don't reside permanently in your PC - they are gone when you log off the website.
The next step is for traditional applications (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) to be run that way. Your data would stay on your PC, but instead of buying and installing the application, you just go online to the proper website - in effect just like those old time-sharing terminals back at IBM. Since the downloaded application would reside temporarily at your PC, performance would be the same as if you had it installed.
The advantages are that you wouldn't have to bother buying, installing, or maintaining the software. Somebody would do it for you and make sure that the software was bug and virus free and up to date. If you carry your data in a small external memory card, you could access the application from any PC. But there are disadvantages.
Instead of a one-time fee (or perhaps a yearly upgrade fee) you may have to pay a monthly subscription fee, just like for your cable or phone service. You wouldn't have a choice as to when a software upgrade is done, and that might impact your usage (i.e. new things to learn) or your data. Obviously, you have to be on a high-speed Internet connection to use these applications - if a service is not available or down, you cannot use your programs - even to write a letter.
I personally will probably drag my heels on web apps, but if the price is right people may start using them. Would you rather pay Microsoft a few dollars a month to use Office and never have to worry about updates, or buy the whole package at $200+? We'll see.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)