The largest barrier to launching and growing a web application is infrastructure. Servers, routers, bandwidth and the head count to run them are all expensive. On top of that, you have to build a system that can maintain application performance under peak-load (otherwise your users will leave you). That's costly and inefficient, because most of the time you're not at peak load (far from it), and so you're spending money on capacity you aren't using. Hosting providers (companies that allow you to run your hardware in their facilities, or will rent servers to you) help stave off the initial capital expenditure of building your own data center, but that really just shifts a lump sum into a perpetuity of expensive monthly payments. And you're still buying (and paying for) way more capacity than you need.
Hence the excitement around cloud computing or utility computing. Just like your electricity bill, you pay for what you use. For some applications, it really is that simple. For other, it isn't; What works for 20 concurrent users doesn't work for 20,000. So you're still worrying about infrastructure.
Todd Fast has a solution: abstract infrastructure and encourage open source social development. Take out the really hard engineering so developers can focus on the user experience. Let people build applications and share their code with each other in a way that gives credit to the original author and encourages a social community.
I think it's an incredible idea. But it's not just an idea; It's a beta.
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