Adobe has developed Adobe Integrated Runtime (or AIR) as a web applications development platform. AIR was previously called Apollo and reminds me Konfabulator and OS X Dashboard applications. With it you can adapt web applications into desktop applications. AIR lets you take an application written in HTML, Flash, AJAX, and JavaScript and create a runtime desktop application.
So, why do the Dashboard widgets only run when you turn the Dashboard on? Why not let them run like other applications? Konfabulator did. And … regarding Konfabulator, they seem to have been bought out by Yahoo are now supporting Yahoo! Widgets.
Is there a name for these small, easy-to-program, networked applications? Niall Kennedy and others call these tiny tools “at-a-glance” applications. Kennedy has an Engadget story that talks about Dashboard and its history.
I’m thinking this would be a good way to teach interface design to students comfortable with web design. I also think we could do some neat stuff with web services like those from TAPoR.