The internet applications gold rush

The golden age for internet applications is now - surpassing even the dot-com era of the late 90s. The technology, infrastructure and understanding of the power of the internet has reached critical mass.

I believe that for any industry, a couple of experts could put together - in a single day - a revolutionary business plan for automating its key processes, using the internet. It's that easy!

All you have to do is map out existing tools against the end to end processes, spot the gaps, apply standard internet advantages (collaboration, accessibility, open standards) and keep an open mind, and inspiration will quickly strike.

For example, retail banking: one of their critical business processes is fulfilling transactions. Why shouldn't I be able to

• subscribe to a secure RSS / Atom feed of my statement
• tag, star, annotate, and search for each statement entry
• click on hyperlinks from each statement entry to the relevant retailor's receipt and product description
• use customized graphs, charts and tables to analyze my statement
• use the same chip + pin security to log into my online statement as for when I make purchases
• accept secure payments from anyone else, using chip + pin
• make customized standing orders; for example, automatically transferring 70% of my balance every day, so long I have more than £1000
• Be part of an online community for sharing financial advice, information, and transactions.
• arrange private loans online with community members, facilitated with credit checks, legal agreements, online community-based reputation, loan insurance, and various interest rate options and calculations
• allow community collaboration, so I can list other users that have view (filtered or full), add (make transactions), edit (annotate, tag, star my statement entries), or delete (cancel transactions) permissions to my statement.

You might have thought financial services was pretty automated already. But based on a 10-minute brainstorm, it's clearly missing the internet touch!

In this blog, I've already applied the same techniques to the media, telecommunications, and content management industries. That's just the start.

But if I can do it, then other people can, too. Expect an avalanche of internet start-ups across a huge range of industries. This will revolutionize our world!