I think we're already at the start of the revolution in education he's asking for. With Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, if you want to know something, you can get that knowledge more effortlessly with each passing day. I think what's missing now is a rating system, a process guide to step you through it, and video conferencing to handle study groups, before we fully have a sort of Wiki-University.
I think the revolution he's talking about is one of more complex computer/human interaction. Writing programs, of one sort or another. Think Excel, or Emacs, or the Python repl.
It's hard to visualize what exponential growth means, but if you can simulate it using Python, you can suddenly imagine it.
If you look with a squinty eye at most of personal computing today, you'll see we're basically just automating paper—using digital versions of documents and mail.
but then I noticed that the article is dated April/May 2003.
but then I noticed that the article is dated April/May 2003
It's amazing how much has changed in the past 5 years. The web has definitely moved into a more social direction - message boards aren't a place where you post, they're a place you hang out. The 'net is morphing into a social environment, not completely unlike the one those envisioned in fiction [1] just 15 years ago.
andreyf's comment got the gist of it. I think personal computing should exclude things most people may only do for work like programming, writing reports or filling out forms even if those kinds of things were often the "killer apps" for personal computers when they first appeared 25+ years ago.
These days personal computing is more about the seamless integration of processing with personal and social activities which is why companies like Apple, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc are doing well.
Seamless hardly! I have to update my status on facebook and twitter separately, upload my photos to picasaweb and facebook separately, check my e-mail, my facebook mail, my news.YC threads, my reddit threads (or mail, whatever they call it).
