The Social Netbook

It is perhaps reasonably well known that i won a Netbook courtesy of Vodafone last month. As soon as i got it I started to think about how it could make its way into the everyday lives of the people i know. So, here are a couple of suggestions:

Social Software
The first thing is that these Netboos need to come pre-bundled with social software. Most people won't buy a Netbook to write code or even compile documents. Most will buy them to "get on the web" as Netbooks are a great opportunity to point them at things to do.

I imagine a wizard in startup that suggests the services you may like to use, takes you through a signing up process and installs and configures the appropriate software for you.

An example is ...

1. Configure an OpenID account
2. Create Twitter account (they should be doing (1) by now!) and install software
3. Create a flickr and twitpic account and configure appropriately.
4. Set up friendfeed.
5. Create a MySpace/Facebook account and store shortcuts.
6. Install UStream/Qik and configure an account.
7. Email account.
8. blah dee blah ...

(Other suggestions ??)

Cloud Services
We're talking about a lightweight laptop that has limited disk space and less than the typical laptop in terms of memory and processor speeds. It is pretty much reliant on you being online. So why not use the cloud??

An example ...

1. An Amazon/Mesh storage account direct from your desktop ... via your OpenID account ;)
2. Allow direct storage and management of pictures, video and so on on the clound (maybe on top of (1)).
3. Perhaps even EC2 could be somehow synchd with Netbooks to allow complex calculations to be carried out on the cloud. Idea here?

In short there is potentially a huge opportunity for services to get on board this new wave of laptop and whilst rolling out an empty laptop works fine for me, there are many others who could climb on board the social wagon if they were given some help along the way!

Who else uses a Netbook? What do you think?