The ScoopGroop
Technical Freelance Writing

Looking at over all trends and the big picture, it seems to me that personal computing will be shifting in the near future. First, let me define what I believe personal computing to be.

It’s more than the ability to have a full fledged computer sitting on your desk or lap. While this is typically what’s believed to be the definition or one of the defining aspects of personal computing, it’s not. These are just two types of “devices” we use, not the experience of personal computing.

Personal computing is the ability to have access to computing technology for augmentation the human experience. In essence, it’s the use of a computer to get things done. Today, we get things done on desktop and laptop computers. The experience of having that kind of computing power has radically changed over the years, but at the core, these have been available to us now over the past 10 years or so.

Quick history – early computing capabilities were centralized. Some of the first “electronic” computers were the size of buildings and rooms. Humans only had access through terminals and simple screens for input. Access was limited to a small percentage of the population, therefore making it unavailable to the masses.

In an effort to provide computing technologies to the masses, companies like Apple and IBM began the modern day, Personal Computer. Over the past thirty years, personal computing has changed radically giving us computing power at our finger tips that has surpassed the early systems. It’s gone from a ‘centralized’ system to having decentralized systems on our desks and laps.

Shifts in what personal computing “is” is about to start. Laptops and desktops are ubiquitous. We’re now so use to them, we don’t give them a second glance when we’re in public areas. They are just there.

With the internet and more specific, the web, we’ve moved from doing everything on our personal computing devices, desktops and laptops, to doing things on the web. Some sites are simply there for the sake of it, not providing any real value, but that’s for a different discussion. The underlying principle of being able to do things outside the confines of ones “personal computer” has begun to change how we use computing.

Next steps: While the personal computer has been a major step in humans augmenting their ability to get things done, they’re a stop gap on the way to something much more far reaching. Star Trek and other SciFi ideologies are becoming more reality every day.

Mobile computing is getting us into the “next step” realm, but, it’s more inline with mass adoption than final end-all. It’s another stop gap to full computing power.

Mobile devices, like the iPad are moving us into the new world. While not perfect, far from it, it’s more inline with the evolution of personal computing.

Far out there: in the near or distant future, personal computing will not be sitting down at our desks with a keyboard or sitting on the couch with our laptops. It’ll be accessing a computing “environment” that is custom tailored to our needs. We’ll subscribe to a computing service whereby we’ll choose the tools, applications (applets) and or “things” we’ll need to do something. With “cloud” computing, it’s not to difficult to conceive of the notion that we’ll be doing this kind of “personal computing” in the near future.