Suppose someone created a web based calculator. All it does is the basics of add, subtract, multiply and divide. Would you call that a Rich Internet Application (RIA)? Probably not.

Now suppose someone created a web based calculator that let you graph equations. Would that be an RIA? More likely.

Suppose someone built a web based calculator that kept a history of your calculations and you could interact with them via a mouse by dragging them around on a canvas where they would automatically update their results based on location. As a for instance suppose I have a column of numbers all added together on my canvas. I then drag the result of another calculation over into that column and it automatically copies itself into the column and updates the sum.

Would you call that an RIA? Very likely.

That example could be built with a handful of different frameworks. So RIA has nothing to do with the fact that you may have used Ruby, Ajax, Flash, Flex, etc.

What made that last example an RIA is the User eXperience (UX).

Now lets go back to the original example of a simple calculator. This one works by the user clicking on the canvas and then typing in an equation, sum of numbers for instance. There is no support for dragging results around or anything like that. You just have the ability to basically create a napkin with a few tabulations on it.

That’s nothing special and probably wouldn’t qualify as an RIA for most people. But lets add one more feature. I can give this napkin a name and invite others to view it. Even update it or add comments at the bottom. Now is it an RIA? Very likely.

Even though there is no cool interface there is the social aspect of being able to share data and comment on it.

So there are at least two paths to building a Rich Internet Application. By making a dynamic interface that gives the user the ability to create results that would not be possible in the physical world. Or, to create a rather mundane application that can be shared with a larger group in a way that would be prohibitive in the physical world.