As a rule of thumb, open technologies tend to be more pervasive and longer lasting (especially for the Internet) than proprietary technologies, which tend to bring more advanced capabilities early on. Consequently, Web application developers need to be pragmatically-open, by choosing open technologies whenever possible, but also by not hesitating to use proprietary ones when required. It is not about being religious about openness or anything else, but rather about being diligent so that one is able to choose the right technology to maximize the chances of success of the target application. In other words, it should not be a personal and emotional decision, but rather a business and rational one.

Today, for mainstream rich Web applications, there are two main technologies: Flash and Open Web (i.e., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG, etc…). While SilverLight and JavaFX are definitely interesting upcoming technologies, they are still unproven Web entities, and, for the sake of simplicity, this article will focus on Flash and Open Web.

Having worked for many years on the subject, and having spent time in both camps, I can honestly state that they both have their pros and cons and, depending on your rich Web application requirements, you might even need to use both. The trick to making a good business decisions is to have an objective look at each technology and to strip out all preconceived emotional opinions.

To help answer the question of what to use when, here is a technology-capability matrix, followed by short explanations.

SEO (Open Web)

While Google is making some good progress at indexing Flash content, SEO for Flash is still in its infancy, and, if your application depends on SEO to succeed, you better stick with well known URLs and HTML best practices. SEO is hard enough with regular page-based HTML content without adding unproven SEO-technologies to the mix. Even adding Ajax the wrong way could be extremely damaging to SEO. For example, the “#” URL trick that is used by many single-page Web applications might not be as SEO-friendly as it seems (Ajax and SEO will probably be the subject of a future post).

Mobile Web (Open Web)

Mobile Web is another place where Flash is still behind. Although Adobe is making promising progress in this area, if your are not building a 2D game or  video/media centric application, there are very few reasons to encumber the overhead and uncertainty of another virtual machine on top of the already very capable modern mobile Web browsers. Nowadays, most of the new high-end devices have desktop-like browser capabilities (often based on WebKit) which allow developers to take full advantage of Open Web technologies such as Ajax and CSS 2.1+. Consequently, the best way to maximize your mobile application reach is to stick with Open Web technologies and architect your Web user interface in such a way that it progressively degrades for simpler mobile browsers. Alternatively, developers can to take advantage of the current mobile app stores trend that promotes device specific applications, but this is outside the Web scope of this article.

Rich HTML Display & Editing (Open Web)

While Flash 10 has some technologies which ease the development of HTML layout and editing components, it is still nowhere near the browser’s native capabilities. It is probably a fair guess that Flash 11 will have even better HTML capabilities, perhaps even embedding WebKit, but, for today, if you want to display and edit rich HTML, not surprisingly, the Web browser is your best friend.

On-Demand Performance (Open Web)

On-demand performance is the experience a user gets when accessing a Web application for the first time (i.e., when none of the application assets are in the browser’s cache). The common expectation for consumer Web applications is usually sub-second responsiveness. As outlined in a previous post about Compiled vs. Interpreted Web, the interpreted nature of the Web makes it very efficient for executing on-demand content & interaction, whereas the compiled nature of the Flash application model is more optimized for post-load execution. So, for applications requiring Web-fast first-time interaction experiences, the Open Web model is the best one.

Post-Load Performance (Flash)

Conversely, the compiled approach of Flash and frameworks such as Flex makes it much more optimized for post-load interactions. So, if you do not mind having a “loading-bar” on your application and have a very high logic execution performance requirement, then Flash might be a good solution. Note that new JavaScript VM such as Google Chrome V8 and Mozilla Firefox SpiderMonkey with TraceMonkey are really breaking the barrier of interpreted language performance. Unfortunately, Microsoft Internet Explorer is still behind (even IE 8) in terms of JavaScript execution speed. While we may suspect that Microsoft is going to work on optimizing their JavaScript engine soon, for now, the best way to have high execution logic performance across browsers is with Flash ActionScript 3.

Animation (Flash)

If you want to make pixel flies, then Flash is your best friend. While this statement is still true today, it is also important to note that, with modern browsers (including IE-8-) and Ajax toolkits such as jQuery, applications have access to some decent sets of animation capabilities using 100% Open Web technologies. So, unless animation is a cornerstone of your application, animation alone should not be a critical or decisive factor one way or  the other.

2D & 3D (Flash)

This is definitely a stronger one in favor of Flash. While Open Web is promoting some 2D standards and implementations (e.g., Canvas and SVG), nothing beats Flash performance and capabilities in reference to pixel and vector graphic creation and manipulation. While Canvas and some SVG are pretty well supported by Firefox and WebKit based browsers (i.e., Safari and Google Chrome), Microsoft IE is still not implementing those. Developers can circumvent this Microsoft limitation by using compatibilities such as JavaScript or even Flash libraries, but this usually comes at the cost of features and performance. In other words, while it is possible to do an online Photoshop or Visio-like applications in SVG/Canvas/VML, the investment required to do it with flash technology is definitely worthwhile. Unfortunately, Flash does not support the interpreted model, so Web developers will have to fully jump into the Flash development model and tools, which can be relatively high barriers of entry, especially for small visual components (e.g., Charting). There are some interesting Flash SVG libraries (e.g., sgweb) which allow Web developers to use Flash to rendSVG renderer and the browser JavaScript VM to run the scripts, however this comes at a performance cost.

File handling (Flash)

File handling has always been completely left-out by the different Open Web standardization and implementer groups. Building an effective experience for accessing local files through a Web browser has always been challenging, to say the least. Even the most modern browsers still have the 1995 simple file-input component which allows for the selection of only one file at a time. Flash, while far from being perfect, does add some nice features in terms of this realm, such as multiple file selections and, more importantly, a way to read selected files of clients before sending them to the server. Unfortunately, enterprise Web applications would really benefit from file drag & drop support from and to the desktop (and File Explorer), but, somehow, this feature is always given a very low priority by the various decision makers (or is somehow labeled as a security hazard). Alternatively, you can use Java technology, as does Facebook for their photo uploader, which gives almost complete file-system control for signed applets (note: somehow, it feels kind of strange to write the word “applet” in 2009). Advanced clipboard support is also another neglected requirement.

Video & Audio Playback (Flash)

Two of HTML 5’s big new features, besides off-line support, are the video and audio tags. However, there still lot of discussion about the support format of video tags. One of the biggest issues is that the best video formats are not royalty free, and, while commercial vendors such as Adobe, Microsoft, and Google are willing to pay the video tax for their users, the open source community finds itself in a catch-22 situation. So, from an application developer standpoint, Flash is by far the best option to bring high quality video and audio to your application. With the latest support of H.264/mp4 video support of Flash, there is no good reason to really look elsewhere for now.

Video & Audio Recording (Flash)

I am splitting out media playback from recordings because, if they are not split, the later tends to be forgotten. It’s difficult to believe, but, in the 2-way Web era, the big promoters of Open Web technologies have no implementations or plans to support Web Video and Audio recording and uploading. Luckily, Adobe Flash has a pretty mature solution to this need, and while they have not opened the code, they have opened the APIs and protocols to allow developers to freely use the Flash player as a video recording device (see Red5 for an open source alternative to Adobe Flash Media server).

So, as can be seen, there is no one size fits all technology. It depends on the application requirements you might need to use multiple technology sets. Obviously, as a technology vendor or advocate your goal is to build and promote your technology for as many scenarios as possible, however, as an application developer, your only goal should be to ensure the success of your application, no matter the technology you end up using or switching to. Developers should rationally and objectively evaluate each of the technologies before investing too much time and money in any one of them. Also, avoiding over-hyped terms such as RIA and Social Network when defining application requirements will go a long way to help in terms of focusing on what really matters to users.

If you liked this article, a re-tweet is greatly appreciated.

If you are in the midst of choosing your technologies for your next rich Web application, do not hesitate to contact me at jeremy.chone@gmail.com. (I provide everything from free advice to complete rich Web architecture and strategy consulting and services.)

Anyway, now that this merger is almost done, the big question everybody has is what will happen with Sun software and open-source assets such as Java, MySql, and OpenOffice. There is also the burning question about Oracle’s commitment regarding Linux. Before going one-by-one, it is important to understand few things about Oracle:

1. Oracle does not like GPL. They have been forced to coexist for their Linux strategy against Microsoft, but, they are isolating it as much as possible.
2. Oracle does not care about desktop computing. While Oracle has some desktop applications (e.g., JDeveloper and Beehive Clients), it tends to mostly focus application model research and development on Web frameworks such as JSF and Fusion Middleware. In other word, no AIR will be coming out of Oracle anytime soon.
3. Oracle has a very talented Linux group, headed by Wim Coekaerts, which has made significant Linux (GPL) contributions. However, overall, Oracle is still far behind IBM in terms of Open Source investment. IBM is the organization that gets and does open source better than anyone else.
4. Oracle masters, better than anybody else, the art of selling software to enterprises. It has the most aggressive enterprise sales force on the market, and they know all the tips and tricks to maximize any single software sell.

So, now the burning questions are what Oracle will do with Java, MySql, and OpenOffice, and will it stay committed to Linux?

1) Oracle on Java

Java is probably the biggest topic, at least for developers.

On the language side, I think it will be business as usual. Sun Java linguists will probably stay at Oracle, and Oracle will probably keep them, as they are the core of one of the biggest part of their acquisition. Many developers are already considering the Java language to be in maintenance mode after JCP‘s repeated failures to adopt Java popular requirements such as closures. Therefore, the change in ownership will probably have little effect on the already-not-popular Java language evolutions.

Oracle might have a bigger effect on the server side of Java. EJB3.0/ORM and Portal specs and implementations should get a boost and, hopefully, JSF will get a re-lifting. However, changes in velocity will be hampered by the fact that everything will still have to go through the same JCP process.

Now, the client side is going to be the entertaining one. I think that first, Oracle will get confused and overwhelmed by JavaFX (who has not?). Then, it will be interesting to see what the Oracle people will do about it. My guess is they will let it be for a while (out of confusion), and then quietly deprecate JavaFX as they realize it is the failed compiled client/server model all over again with some flying pixels, a cute, but weird, Java-like-but-not-Java language, with very low client penetration.

On the tool side, the NetBeans vs. JDeveloper fight is going also to be fun to watch. Oracle has been very emotionally tight with its JDeveloper to the point of prioritizing it over BEA Eclipse-based IDE (even after standardizing on WebLogic middleware). The good news is that both NetBeans and JDeveloper are Swing-based, so a happy marriage is not out of the question (except if JavaFx wants to cause trouble).

Personally, I am a little concerned about Tomcat. Tomcat has become a very robust and reliable Servlet container and, with frameworks like Spring and Hibernate, can become the backbone for highly scalable SaaS enterprise applications. The good part is that Tomcat is governed by Apache, which hopefully will maintain a good continuation of the project. But again, if Oracle decides to stop continuing Sun’s investment in Tomcat, the product will untimely surfer.

2) Oracle on MySQL

Let’s get to business. MySQL acquisition is very interesting. It is important to note that Oracle has always tried to understand what it could do with MySQL, without giving it too much attention. This initiative became concrete in 2005, when they bought the innoDB. MySQL’s CEO, Marten Mikos, has also been relatively friendly with Oracle over the years. I actually think he would have rather been bought by Oracle than by Sun. But although this was a topic of discussions, it has never happened, because, as Larry likes to put it:

“I prefer to spend $1 billion and be right than $100 million and be wrong.”

Well, this is Larry’s business genius. He just spent $6 billion and he is probably right.

So, what Oracle will do with MySQL? The new MySql 5.4 has some features that could be considered quite competitive with the Oracle database. And now that MySql has the Oracle brand on it, Oracle will have to be even more careful about it.

My bet is that Oracle will keep the MySQL 5.4 Community going and slow down the development of 6.0 (in very subtle ways). Where Oracle might become aggressive is in regard to the MySQL Enterprise and Cluster editions. While an internal competition is always better than an external one, Oracle is going to want to control it. It has two options for doing this. The first is by price, basically aligning the MySQL Enterprise and Clusters editions to Oracle DB pricing (at least as a lower cost alternative for small to medium enterprises -see comment from Chris Arthur- ). The second is by product, by slowing down MySQL Enterprise product innovation and investment. My guess is that it will be the first one, which might result in a reduction of resources on MySQL community editions as well.

One thing I think won’t happen (at least for the next 5 to 10 years) is a merger between MySQL and Oracle DB. First, it would be a mistake from a business standpoint, as MySQL gives a great new channel to Oracle and, second, Oracle does not want to risk contaminating its crown-jewels database source code with the viral MySQL GPL one.

3) Oracle on OpenOffice

This is probably the sad one. I am a big fan of OpenOffice, and I am not sure of its viability inside Oracle. As mentioned above, Oracle does not really care about desktop computing. While there might be some interesting fit with some Oracle products (e.g., Oracle Beehive), an investment in OpenOffice would require an equal (if not greater) investment in Microsoft Office integration, which Oracle has never done. I am not sure the OpenOffice asset acquisition will trigger a change of heart. I think that in a year or two a spinoff will be inevitable.

4) Linux (vs. OpenSolaris)

Last, but not least, Oracle and Linux. Will this acquisition tamper with Oracle’s commitment to Linux? As far as technical contributions, I do not think it will change much. I think the Oracle Linux group will stay committed and funded to continue the Linux initiatives.

However, on a macro level, we might see some change. I think the real question is, “Will Oracle continue [some of] Sun’s hardware business?” If, yes, then, Oracle will have to push OpenSolaris to the market and that might take some juice out of their Linux marketing initiative. Otherwise, if Larry’s last commitment to Solaris and Sun’s hardware was just a gimmick for Wall Street (or a last favor to Scott McNealy), then, in couple of years, Oracle might be back, full speed, on Linux by acquiring a Novell or Redhat, for example.

Update 2009-05-20: My latest conversations on the subject lead me to believe that Oracle will probably end (i.e. silently put in maintenance mode) the Sun x64 solution (which compete directly with their current HP/x64/Linux/Storage solution), and will keep Sun’s Middleware for higher-end customers. This new hardware and OS division will allow them to effectively push their “DB Appliance” solution to large enterprises (with total control on the Operating System), and push Linux/x64 to the SMB market. So, Oracle might and probably should do both, Solaris and Linux.

So, here is it, my quick take on Oracle acquisitions and some predictions for the future. I really have the greatest respect for the Oracle executive team, Larry, Safra, and many others. I think they are great market strategists, and they are continuously shaping the enterprise software market. Very fun to watch!

Now, the next question is: What will IBM do about it? Buy SAP?

Here is some background to better understand this point of view. There has been a somewhat valid belief stating that the un-typed and interpreted nature of the JavaScript language was a major limitation for building demanding client applications. Consequently, to overcome this challenge, the browser technology providers had the following two options:

1. Re-invent the language by “upgrading” the JavaScript language to a more a traditional typed and object-oriented language, such as Java or C#, allowing the runtime to just focus on running the code.
2. Re-invent the runtime by creating novels ways for the JavaScript virtual machine to parse and interpret the JavaScript code, making the language as robust and reliable as more traditional languages.

Conforming to the EcmaScript’s Harmony decision, which focuses on not reinventing [or forking] the language (i.e., not doing #1), Google and Mozilla are actually genuinely working on the same goal, which is to make the current JavaScript faster and more reliable in a completely transparent way to the web developer. So, from a language point of view, Mozilla and Google are actually in complete harmony in pursuit of the Open Web vision.

Here are a few Q&As to summarize my take on Google Chrome from a developer’s perspective.

Which one is faster?

It does not matter as long as they keep fighting it up. Google Chrome got a good PR head-start, but, Mozilla Firefox 3.1 is back in the race with TraceMonkey.

What’s the good news?

JavaScript has become a safer bet for developers. With Google, Mozilla, and Apple seriously investing in JavaScript, from applications to runtimes, developers can rest assured that the language has a bright future. I also think this will be a factor in forcing Microsoft to react aggressively, assuming it does not want to see the Internet slipping way (again).

What’s the bad news?

The caveats (and there are always some) are that developers will have yet another browser to test against and the market will have yet another browser to adopt.

So, at the end, I think that Google Chrome is a good thing for the Open Web in general, and my hope is that it will be a forcing hand to get Microsoft to update its Web strategy.

For example, given that Microsoft Internet strategy seems to be mostly focused on the plug-in front (i.e., SilverLight vs. Flash), it might be interesting for Microsoft to just re-use the Mozilla or Google JavaScript virtual machine. Why not?  Developers will be happy, and Microsoft would be able to fully focus on SilverLight and .Net.

Well, while the licensing questions are pertinent and will need to be answered at some point, the real questions are “What? Why? And How much [open]?”

The “What” and “Why” are very dependent on the entity’s business model and should be carefully thought out. Open Source is a useful tool to lower the entry barrier, change product perception, increase adoption, and create awareness. However, it does not come for free, definitely does not reduce engineering cost, and often requires a specific DNA. The key to determining the “What?” is to not only think about what the entity is ready to give to the community, but also, what the community would be interested in taking from the entity. In other words, don’t ask yourself what you can give to the community, but what the community wants to take from you.

The “How much [to open]?” is the main question which will help determine the appropriate license, the challenge being that among your users you will have competitors that you cannot really individualize. To facilitate this thinking process, I made the following matrix which lists the main usage capabilities for the different types of open source licenses.

“Download” and “Evaluate” are often the easiest ones since most technology companies want their “open” or even proprietary technologies to be freely accessible for evaluation. Obviously, all open source licenses allow these two usages.

The “Deploy” is where most misunderstandings come from and where open source differ the most from proprietary software licensing. For server technologies, all open source licenses (1) allow users to freely build and deploy applications on top of the open source [server] asset without any restrictions on their application licensing. Restriction applies only when redistribution of the asset occurs, and typical end-user usage (over the Internet) does not qualify as asset redistribution. For example, Google is using a highly modified version of Linux (GPL) and has not had to give anything back to the community (Note: Google gave some of its customization back, though). Note that for client side open source components, GPL can be a little bit more complicated (not covered in this post).

Redistribution of an application is where GPL differs the most from other open source license types. GPL is very viral by design, and can be a great tool for an entity wishing to control the redistribution of its open source asset by assuming that many potential customers or distributors will not want to play by the GPL rules. Dual-licensing (GPL + Commercial License) is often used for this purpose by allowing users to opt-out of the GPL licensing restriction if they agree to the commercial terms. There are a lot of caveats to this dual-licensing approach (e.g., open contribution, community uptake, and corporate development opportunities), but it has proven to be working (e.g., MySql). MPL and BSD-like licenses (and in some ways LGPL) are designed to allow free redistribution of the open source asset.

Modification of the open source asset is where BSD-like licenses (Apache, BSD, MIT) differ the most from other ones. All other open source licensing forces modifications to their asset to be submitted back with the same original license, whereas BSD/Apache-like licenses do not have such requirements. I personally think that this is one of the principal reasons why Apache products and assets have been broadly adopted by commercial entities such as Oracle in their commercial offerings.

So, in short, for server-side assets, open source licenses cannot really be used to control deployment, but more redistribution and modification. If there is a good OEM business opportunity, then dual-licensing (i.e. GPL + Commercial) might be an option, but if community and adoption are the principal objectives, the Apache/BSD license types are probably the most effective ones. While GPL might give the most control (in some ironic ways), it might also limit market adoption and business opportunities.

My philosophy is that leadership comes from contribution and not control (i.e. licensing).

(1) GPL V3 has an optional clause forcing the deployed applications to be under GPL as well (this clause is not commonly used).

Related Links:

• Some good info about Mozilla Licensing: MPL FAQ, Relicensing FAQ
• GPL vs BSD, a matter of sustainability
• What is CopyLeft (from Gnu.org)

1) Facebook to make big push to Mobile

This is more of an opinion than a prediction, but I think that Facebook should make a big push in the mobile space. Apple reinvigorated this space from a consumer point of view; however, mobile applications are still hard to develop, integrate, or promote. Facebook has the reach, the technology, and the platform experience to create an online mobile platform allowing application providers to build, integrate (i.e., mashup), and deploy (i.e. provisioning) mobile applications.

The challenge to build a true online mobile platform would be to take some distance from the “PC world” and focus the mobile specific issues, constraints, and value chains.

Google might be another challenger in this space; however, their strategy seems to be very device-centric (with Android), which will take longer to unfold.

2) Ning to be acquired by Yahoo! (or Microsoft)

On the consumer portal front, I predict that Ning will get acquired by Yahoo! (or Microsoft). TechCrunch predicted that it would be Google, but I think that Google has its hands too full with Open Social to buy yet another “framework.”

Yahoo! might want to make an aggressive move in the social network space in a novel way. A Ning acquisition might allow them to differentiate themselves, at least from a developer standpoint. In a way, Yahoo! could become the social network platform for the rest of us.

Note: Google might very well buy Bebo.com to deepen its US/EU social network presence.

3) Apple to revolutionize the media distribution market (iTunes 2.0)

Well, this one is not hard to predict, but I think that Apple’s move to online video will become big. The WGA strike definitely works to Apple’s advantage. While Apple’s video rental numbers might look relatively low by the end of 2008, when compared to Blockbuster, I think Apple is going to be in a position to dominate this market (or at least, create its own).

The big question is, how will Apple be able to get into the living room? Apple TV?

4) Apple to acquire Adobe

This is an easy and now popular prediction. Despite the fact that Apple has a lot on its 2008 plate, I think, as many others do, that it would be a good strategic move for Apple to “merge with” (i.e. buy) Adobe. Apple is now, more than ever, the king of user experience from a consumer point of view. It would make perfect sense for Apple to also become the tools leader for creating these user experiences.

The irony of such an acquisition would be that, with the newly-acquired tools and runtime (Adobe Flex/AIR), Apple developers would be able to build and deploy applications for Microsoft Windows (as Microsoft developers used to do with Microsoft tools for Apple computers).

5) Microsoft to open SilverLight and/or XAML

2007 was the SilverLight year, in which Microsoft first attempted to take over the Flash market. SilverLight is mostly based on an XML language called XAML which is also used to build desktop applications with the WPF runtime. However, while some XAML clones already exist (e.g., Wayne’s post and eFace) none of these technologies are officially open.

I predict that Microsoft will either standardize the XAML language or even open-source the SilverLight code. It won’t do any harm to Microsoft, and will definitely counter some common attacks against these technologies.

6) Oracle to buy RedHat or SalesForce.com

I was going to say BEA, but this would be cheating now. I think the next one could be either SalesForce.com or RedHat. Oracle has been pretty aggressive in its Linux strategy in the last couple of years. A RedHat acquisition would be definitely in-line with Oracle’s disturb-before-striking acquisition strategy. RedHat new CEO would probably facilitate such acquisition.

I also think that online platforms for enterprise software/service companies are going to become strategic in 2008. SalesForce.com, with its force.com platform, is being aggressive about this, and can become the Facebook for enterprise applications. I am not sure that Oracle is ready to bet big on SaaS or PaaS (Platform as a Service) yet. But P/SaaS is definitely going to continue to grow, and might even become more relevant in economic downturn.

Anyway, both of these acquisitions are probably just a matter of time, and 2008 will tell us more.

7) Enterprise Web 2.0

As mentioned in the introduction to this post, I think that 2008 will be a real start for Enterprise Web 2.0, the buzz-word for leveraging the best of the Web 2.0 technologies and paradigms to make enterprise internet applications more usable (i.e. RIA/AJAX), simpler, and collaborative (i.e. social). In this context, SaaS and PaaS (i.e., Platform as a Service) are going to be critical. (see Dion Hinchcliffe’s 12 predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2008)

To this end, I am now consulting with enteprise software and service companies to help them leverage Web 2.0 technologies and paradigms for their products and services. See www.jeremychone.com for more information.

So, here you have my seven predictions for 2008, hoping the “recession” won’t be too hard on the industry.

And a belated happy new year to you all!

The reference is also well done:

• If you are using Firefox, you are asked to download the Google Toolbar.
• And if you happen to use IE, your are pointed to a "Firefox with Google Toolbar" bundle package.

Today, Opera and Safari users will be pointed to the "Firefox with Google Toolbar." It will be interesting to see if Google will open up its referral program to other browsers.

I am sure we will see more from the Google-Mozilla alliance, and I am definitely looking forward to Google-Firefox, part III.

One thing I have always wished for is to get from OpenOffice functions that I cannot get from Microsoft Office. OpenOffice does a good job at providing similar functionality as Microsoft Office. However, while OpenOffice provides innovation and modern functionality, it does not provide much more than Microsoft Office, at least not in a "Web 2.0" sense.

For example, in nowadays, most Web Applications (such as Flickr, Blog Service, Wikis, …) offer some powerful Web services. It would be useful to integrate these services directly into the OpenOffice editing experience. Here are a couple of features I would love to see in OpenOffice:

• Use OpenOffice Writer as [super] blog publishing tool (for WordPress, Bloggers, and TypePad).
• Use Flickr or any other photo services directly into Writer, Impress or even Calc., basically, being able to search and insert images from any photo services (i.e. ‘a la Flock‘) while editing my document.
• Use any blog and Wiki services as a data source for Writer and Impress. For example, while writing a document or presentation, having the ability to quote a section of a blog or Wiki page (e.g., Wikipedia).
• Many other possible integrations exist.

I am sure the OpenOffice platform and architecture allows for such extensions. It would also be great to include some of these integrations in the default OpenOffice package … just to stimulate engineering creativity and to offer a good reason to use OpenOffice even if we still have to use Microsoft Office, at least for a while ;).

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