Rather excited about Facebook's new decision to develop or create an exclusive office platform. Although i am not certain what form it will take, i think it will go a long way in easing the pressure that employees have been experiencing in the workplace.
What i was expecting is a venture into hardware and the natural progression towards a mobile device of some kind with www.facebook.com as its core system. But i think that will come a little later.
Naturally i kept thinking about www.google.com and their apps which have been life savers in more ways than one. So i would like to see the creation of facebook apps that take the place or at least complement the more common office programs that we are now used to. While development might take some time i think it will be worth it.
Maybe a partnership with Sun Microsystems (www.oracle.com) and their Open Office would be great but the aim is really to create a platform that sits on the facebook office space that allows simple integration of basic office documents and the seamless movement to and from its systems.
In addition to this it would be good to work with groups like Microsoft and their already existing collaborative platforms that allow for various users to work on similar projects.
I think that the existence of video, and voice will obviously be an added advantage. In addition to this i suggest that the facebook crew begin to create games that can be used officially in the workplace for 'staff development'. Kind of like what you have in those team building management meetings where new members of staff can interact and learn in exciting ways.
In addition to this, maybe they could also use the recent acquisition of 3D platforms (not for printing as such) and developers to take the idea of an office to a new dimension (www.secondlife.com). A marriage between second life and new workspace. Where i can show up or register for a job interview online and actually visit the workspace in a virtual environment.
