Being able to access your calendar, contacts and files wherever you are makes your online and offline life easier. Services like Google calendar and esnips give you the ability to do this, but you still have to be a member of multiple services at the same time. High-speed Internet connections are more and more used these days and I think it won’t take long before people are using web-based operating systems. With a Web OS the only tool you need is a working Internet connection and a web browser. I’ve been playing around a little with jQuery and PHP to create my own Web OS. Actually it isn’t a real Web OS, but more a collection of tools joined in one user interface. It allows you to easily access all services you need in one portal, with the look and feel of a familiar digital environment.

The project I’m currently working on is called ‘Luna’ and is far from finished. It contains the basics, like a PHP login system and user management with user groups, which, for example, makes the system configuration only accessible for administrators. Some modules are working now but not yet fully functional. I’ve implemented a file manager to create folders and upload files which can be downloaded anywhere at anytime. When a new user is created by an administrator the script automatically creates a personal folder for the file uploads.

Using the Google Maps API, I’ve created a module where you can create personal markers on a map. The location and description of these markers are saved in a MySQL database. I’m planning to link this with the contacts module, where users can store contact details.

There’s still a lot of work to do and features to add, like a feed reader and a calendar which can’t be missing. It might also be cool to add some social networking tools in the future so you can update your twitter status from within the Web OS. I don’t really have a goal with creating this application, but I think turning it into a CMS is a good idea. Because it looks like a standard operating system, with the draggable windows, it might feel more comfortable to my customers to work with it as they are already familiar with the look and feel of the application.