The digital join...

Those of you who know me will know why I love technologies such as Citrix and Groove, and why the mix is so... awe inspiring. The reason is simple - they are both democratising. They both empower.

Citrix and other server based computing technologies are democratising because they can provide exceptional power almost equally to a much wider range of computers and thus to people. They do this by off-loading CPU, RAM and DISK demands to powerful servers. No longer do you need a powerhouse Windows-XP laptop to run the worlds most demanding programs. I have run Microsoft Office-97 on a DOS 286 computer with really good performance. The only thing letting it down was poor graphics, and the 386 gave that a leg up!

Groove also is a democratising technology. Its "always on" security, its "off-line" abilities, its "I'm in space, and I'm sorted" mentality are just exceptional concepts. But Groove is a demanding bit of kit. New high-spec laptops/desktops are strongly recommended if not a necessity. And they always will be. Computer prices don't really drop. What happens is that functionality goes up and more demanding software becomes the norm. And Groove fits that mold.

The key next steps in the digital join are integrating more technologies, and especially those that drop to mobile phones. Fortunately today we are blessed with more smart devices that can hook into the power of terminal service based solutions. And thus today at PopG we are able to deliver incredible and unbelieveable democratising power to down to what will be the most ubiquitous computer on the planet - Phones, PDAs and Palms and the like.

The melting pot called PopG breaks many computing limitations. By joining the two ends of the computing spectrum it provides the best possible computing options imagineable for the "digitally challenged". At http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3742817 the economist completely ignores the web in its discussion of the digital divide, treating it as an irrelevance. Any more articles like that and the Economist might become an irrelevance! With funding we can join the divide.