That mention of "providing a desktop-esque experience" reminds me of
something potentially exciting; the W3C have a working group set up to
look at this 'rich client' development (http://www.w3.org/2006/webapi/).
One of the exciting/scary aspects of this is looking at how web
applications could be given the ability to persistently store data on
the client (i.e. save data to your computer, not just to the remote
server). This could open up a whole new world of applications, that
could work both on and offline (e.g. take Basecamp on the train with
you, and sync it back up later).
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Ellis Mike
Sent: 01 February 2006 15:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Electronic Museum news - Feb 2006
[I have my Science Museum, not Electronic Museum hat on...]
There's a whole bunch of questions there which I guess are as much a
challenge for any sector as they are for us. When does a technology
reach a
level of maturity that it stops being just something new and tips over
into
an accepted "standard"? Has Flickr got there, for example? I'd argue
that it
has, and that in many ways the underlying techniques and technologies it
uses (and the ones that Dan mentions) are already well accepted and
bedded
in across the web. I think Nick's point about the last 12 months being
an
important time for this is a good one.
The great focus here, from almost every angle, is that it is application
of
technology almost entirely from a user perspective. At last we can begin
(only begin..) to provide a desktop-esque experience with things like
AJAX.
At the same time, the sorts of innovative approach of mashups and
syndication means that users can create sites which consume data from
other
sites. Electronic Museum is an example - I suck in RSS from a number of
places and am therefore able to provide content without having to do all
the
work. Wonderful...
Incidentally (sales pitch), I'm hoping to get an Electronic Museum
interview
with Macromedia's (actually, Adobe's) head of accessibility to talk
about
Flash and what they're up to. I'm particularly interested in how they
see
all this web2 stuff affecting what they do. Watch this space!
Mike
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