Hi,
Interesting discussion.
Prestel / Ceefax / BBCi page numbers probably came about since few
consumers had a full qwerty keyboard TV remote controls in the good old
days - those of manually converting Marilyn Monroe into digital format
with nothing more than graph paper and felt-tip pens :-) I'll just mention
the revolutionary French Minitel in this context but stop there!
So as I don't get told off for posting frivolously, the following is worth
reading in regard to the topic under discussion:
http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI
The essential point is that planning your URI "hierarchy" before
deployment is essential such that it its retains usefulness, relevance and
stability long into the future.
In my experience, stable, well-planned URI hierarchies including URIs of
the form:
/Collections/History/Israel/1000BC/Construction
are much more memorable to both internal content maintainers (especially)
and customers alike than, e.g.,:
/1234
Obviously a key question arises if you wish to provide alternative paths
for customers to find a particular document.
I'd tend to define a URI hierarchy based on what you believe to be the
most likely path for customers and then provide linking index documents
such that customers can effectively get to the same URI via. intermediate
indices as though there also existed e.g., a
"/Collections/Construction/1000BC/Countries/Israel" URI.
Hope this makes some sense! In essence, it's the same problem as
categorising collection objects in a real world hierarchy.
Regards,
James
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008, Fiona Romeo wrote:
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:53:42 -0000
> From: Fiona Romeo <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MCG] Go to page number
>
> Welcome Hanan,
>
> It's a different context but page numbers have a relatively long history
> of use in British interactive television - from Ceefax to 'red button'
> services.
>
> Here's a quick overview of interactive TV in the UK:
> http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/BBCi
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Red_Button
>
> And here's a paper that evaluates various navigational options for TV,
> including page numbers:
> http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1453832
>
> I think that page numbers were primarily intended to make it easier to
> go from print (BBC Radio Times) to the relevant page on TV.
>
> Fiona
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>> James Morley
>> Sent: 16 December 2008 09:36
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Go to page number
>>
>> Hi Hanan
>>
>> Welcome to the list. I was the person who first posted the query
> about
>> web addresses on interpretation so I was interested in what you have
> said.
>>
>> I like the idea of your approach. I think it works well particularly
> for
>> objects and collections, although I'd suggest though that you should
>> probably keep it just for those rather than all pages across the site.
>> Personally I'd also feel it would make more sense if it was called
>> something les generic than just 'page number' - if it was just
> collections
>> then it could be 'item', 'object' or such like.
>>
>> With this approach, on signs you'd have to get them to remember both
> the
>> web address *and* the number. But if you could be confident that
> people
>> will know your web address or at least easily be able to find you,
> then
>> you could get away with just having the number, as long as you can
>> reliably get across the message that that number will unlock further
>> information on the website, and as other posters have commented,
> therein
>> lies the catch.
>>
>> A further enhancement would be to use redirects or some sort or url
>> rewrite so that people could simply write the number into an address,
> such
>> as www.mada.org.il/123 or www.mada.org.il/en/123
>>
>> Regards, James
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> James Morley [log in to unmask]
>> Website Manager Tel. +44 (0)20 8332 5759
>> Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew www.kew.org
>>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>>> Behalf Of Hanan Cohen
>>> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:49 AM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Go to page number
>>>
>>> Shalom,
>>>
>>> Since this is my first post to this list I will introduce myself.
>>>
>>> My name is Hanan Cohen and I am the new Webmaster of the
>>> Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, Israel.
>>> http://www.mada.org.il/en/ . I am "new" in the sense that I
>>> have been a short time on this job and also in the sense that
>>> I am new to museums as a professional.
>>>
>>> One of the issues I have been thinking about since starting
>>> here is how to connect the physical world to the web. We know
>>> there is a problem of directing people from paper to web and
>>> also from speech to web. At the most, we direct people to a
>>> top directory and they somehow manage from there.
>>>
>>> (See the discussion here at MCG titled "Putting web addresses on
>>> interpretation")
>>>
>>> The Bloomfield Science Museum strives to be an educational
>>> resource for its visitors - the general public and the formal
>>> education system.
>>>
>>> Writing long URL's on paper in order to propose content on
>>> our site to our audience is a problem.
>>>
>>> Then I had an idea.
>>>
>>> Every page on our site has a unique, short ID.
>>>
>>> I have created a new box that is displayed on every page.
>>>
>>> The box says "go to page number:", has an input line and
>>> below that "current page number: wxyz"
>>>
>>> When I want to direct someone to a page, all I have to do is
>>> see in what page number I am at and write or say a short number.
>>>
>>> The recipient just has to type a short number and go directly
>>> to the intended page. No need to type a long URL or click
>>> through menus.
>>>
>>> Now, we at the museum, will have to learn how to use this
>>> feature in our publications, displays and daily use of the
>>> website. It's a whole new way of thinking which we will have
>>> to develop. I hope the new feature will really solve the
>>> problem it tackles.
>>>
>>> I would be grateful for any feedback on this solution and its
>>> implementation.
>>>
>>> Currently, there isn't much English content on the site. To
>>> get a better experience of the page number idea, I suggest
>>> visiting the "Exhibitions"
>>> section.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Hanan Cohen - Webmaster
>>> Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem
>>> http://www.mada.org.il
>>>
>>> (cross posted to mcn-l)
>>>
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