[Sigia-l] The future of WWW...

[Dave]

----- Original Message -----
From: Louise Hewitt <louise.hewitt at ofsted.gov.uk>
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 09:55:00 +0100
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] The future of WWW...
To: dheller at gmail.com, sigia-l at asis.org


>but the platform itself for building has not changed really since netscape 
4.x came out. 

Lou> Neither has the 'platform' of audio speakers; motorcars;
aeroplanes; houses;
hoses ... the list goes on. Just because something has not taken outstanding 
development, it is not a flaw. It could indicate a plateau, true. Innovation 
now is all about the fine tuning. 


me again> But Lou, the platform of the web is being used for things it
was never intended to do. It is a document transfer system that is now
being used as an application platform. THIS is way different than a
system designed to be an audio system being the same ... and btw,
while the wires connecting everything has stayed the same for most
people, audiofiles of late have replaced that w/ optical/digital I/O,
so there has been change AND the components running at the ends of the
wires have changed oh so much.

>that the browser adds to a level of confusion for users beyond that of the 
application running on it. Why? b/c there is an application running inside an 
application. 

lou> Ah-ha! This is where the money is. I wholly agree (back? home?
print? print?)
The browser offers an endless set of additional option that invade the users 
experience (and differ endlessly from profile to profile). Is this, however, a 
reason to throw away the concept of a 'browser window'? I actually think that 
understanding that what you are doing requires an 'online' connection is very 
important for some users - and have been shocked by the number of email users 
who fail to recognise the need for a connection in the abscence of the 
whirling globe thingy. 

Better, surely, to  bring the browser up to date and strip away all of the 
unnecessary buttons and tools whilst keeping the common impression that you 
are using the internet, and not a hard-drive based application. 

Very interested to see if I'm off tack (and this is a more specific discussion 
of technology and coding) or whether there are any others who agree. 

me again> Hi lou, no one is talking about ending "online" solutions
and you could say that the solutions being present are about making
"the browser" better. The browser is not the network, but is just a
rendering engine for HTML, JavaScript & DOM. There are two issues at
play here.

1. HTML++ ((x)HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc) is not sufficient for
application and even information distribution in the ways it is being
used today. We have past its abilities and we are now bringing a level
of complexity to online services and applications that it cannot
support.

2. The browser for applications is a problem b/c it generates
confusion for users who cannot for web-applications make sufficient
mental separation between the browser app and the application that the
browser is containing.

But we were also having an argument before this about whether or not a
diversity helps or hinders innovation. :) Whch now is a distant memory
of a thread. ;)

-- dave