Re: Colloquial Web CG

On 16 August 2011 16:52, Sean B. Palmer <sean@miscoranda.com> wrote:

> The colloquial web is a point of view rather than an architecture or a
> system. It's the idea that how we use the web, and what we do on the
> web, evolves differently to the web technologies that ought to cater
> for us.

"This POV expresses the dissonance between  web use and
web technology development"




 Sometimes this dissonance or tension is trivial. Sometimes it
> is more obvious and irritating. This CG is supposed to look at the
> differences, and comment on what to do about them.



> Conformance isn't the only thing we can study, of course. It would be
> interesting to know how trends in making websites are changing, and
> what they're changing towards. Attitudes towards content creation have
> changed massively in the past decade. Whereas social media sharing and
> CMSes rule the roost now, ten years ago people were probably more
> likely to be uploading their files using FTP to a hosting company that
> wouldn't last more than a year.

Wordpress/tumblr  etc? is that what you mean here Sean?
For me, this is one example of a huge mismatch between authoring
tools for many, and the syntax that the web foists on good web publishers?
We all use whatever we can to get round it.



>
> This all has an effect on the technologies that we use. When our
> content is locked into proprietary silos, it's hard to manage a
> coherent presentation of what we put online.

I'm a publisher. I like my data locked in InDesign.
I'm a student. I use Wordpress for my website. That's not locked in. Is it?
....




 We are faced with
> managing an ever increasing number of accounts and even identities on
> the web, with decreasing chance of ever being able to consolidate
> them. Technologies such as OAuth promise to help us manage our data by
> giving us the ability to delegate fine grained access control to the
> companies that we trust, but fail when the companies ask for more than
> they need, leaving us no alternatives when the competition is slim.

But few understand either the need or the technicalities of OAuth.
Hence the publication of 123456 as the most used password?


>
> Web technologies have always lagged behind practice, and politics have
> had as much to play in their development as science.

Add the gap of understanding between the wannabe publisher
and the technologist.


 Sometimes it's
> impossible to effect the change that we'd like to bring about. But I
> think we should at least be documenting as we go, providing good data
> and good arguments to people who might be interested. Perhaps we can
> start by identifying some areas in which a colloquial viewpoint will
> be most illuminating.


Is a viewpoint a statement of a problem? Is it recognition of a mismatch
or gap(what I think I can do vs what opportunity I don't see).
A persons view of the web sounds like a good starting point.
"I can never find anything on the web" is one that shocked me, but
was truly believed by the speaker.


regards





-- 
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
Docbook FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk

Received on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 16:49:47 UTC