From Subject to Object

A few weeks ago Apple introduced MobileMe as a replacement for .Mac. As has been noted, Apple, with this change, went from a Subject based i approach, to a Object based me approach. As noted in the above linked article this means the following:

Signs do, however, point clearly to Apple steering away from consumer as creator of data and toward consumer as data itself. I no longer create the data I sync, the data is me and it syncs on its own.

For the past seven years, I've been heavily involved in defining relationship types with a Subject Type and Object Type. And therefor I feel that I can add my own two cents to it. The way I see it is that the subject attributes something to the object. That something is normally either described by a role or by a verb phrase. For example, the i in for example iPhoto attributes photos to iPhoto. Now for MobileMe. Here we have an Object Type: Me and a role description: Mobile. The trick is now to find out what is attributing to the mobile me. Is that the I from the apps in iCal, iTunes, iMovie et cetera? Or can it be Apple? Or the notorious Cloud?

In my opinion, it is I that is contributing to me. And to which me? I'm quite sure that I can have multiple Me's because I have multiple I's. For example, when asked at a party where my car is, I might answer I'm parked over there, at the end of the parking lot. And, since I can have multiple I's, I'm sure I can have multiple me's too. In this case it would be a Mobile Me. This leads me to the fact that I am contributing to the Me that is on the road, or at least away from my PC. In this light, MobileMe can be seen as part of the ongoing evolution that removes the ties to the home PC and enables mobility.
This evolution started with the need for remote access and dumb terminals via teletype. Then the home PC came cutting the ties with the work environment and the mainframe computers. After the home PC became the central server of all personal data, a further tie was cut with the increased popularity of notebook and laptop computers. As technology advanced, the PDA's and mobile phones became more and more popular. Now we have the combination of internet access via cloud computing and an able wireless infrastructure that allows true mobile access. It is exactly this that is enabled by the introduction of MobileMe. It fits both with the description on Apple's pages and with the naming of the service: MobileMe.

In short, the move from Subject to Object in the name is based upon the shift from home computing to wireless access everywhere with small personal devices like the iPhone.

Zaaf