Re: Problem with capabilities guideline (5.1.2)

 Dear West, Mark Andrew ,

The Mobile Web Best Practice Working Group has reviewed the comments you
sent [1] on the Last Call Working Draft [2] of the Mobile Web Best
Practices 1.0 published on 12 Apr 2006 Thank you for having taken the time
to review the document and to send us comments!

This message holds the disposition of the said comments on which the
Working Group has agreed. This disposition has been implemented in the new
version of the document available at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-mobile-bp-20060518/

Please review it carefully and let us know if you agree with it or not
before 30 May 2006. In case of disagreement, you are requested to provide
a specific solution for or a path to a consensus with the Working Group.
If such a consensus cannot be achieved, you will be given the opportunity
to raise a formal objection which will then be reviewed by the Director
during the transition of this document to the next stage in the W3C
Recommendation Track.

Thanks,

For the Mobile Web Best Practice Working Group,
Philipp Hoschka
Dominique Hazaël-Massieux
W3C Staff Contacts

 1.
http://www.w3.org/mid/97421BDCA994C04BBDFC20039419A8A8017C5494@email02.bsu.edu
 2. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-mobile-bp-20060412/


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Your comment on [CAPABILITIES] Explo...:
I have read the current draft of the Best Practices document.  Overall it
is a good summation of all the guidelines (esp. OpenWave) I have been
using under the Mobile Development Project at Ball State University
Libraries.



While I have a few minor problems with the guidelines (GIF really ought to
be put on pension since most mobile Web browsers can handle PNG), I take
issue with the capabilities guideline (5.1.2):  "Do not take a least
common denominator approach."



As the mobile developer, my primary concern is to make library information
and services available to the largest number of mobile users.  I started
with no knowledge of mobile devices; with a clunky development environment
(IIS/Visual Studio/FrontPage); and with a vague idea of what devices were
in use on campus.  (Several attempts at an online survey of mobile devices
fell flat.)  Nonetheless I have created a mobile Web site for the
University Libraries, that looks and works perfectly well using a strategy
that the Best Practices document has labelled "least common denominator".



Perhaps you can add a "How To Do It" section under the capabilities
guideline, or at least explain why following a LCD approach could result
in a lesser experience for mobile users.



The University Libraries mobile Web site is
http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/mobile/.



Working Group Resolution:
We encourage content providers to provide an experience that works for the
Default Delivery Context. However, we are aware that the Default Delivery
Context is very restrictive and that when mobile devices such as PDAs and
large screen mobile phones are used, a better experience can be provided
to the users of those devices by exploiting their greater capabilities. A
specific example of this is that larger screen devices can display larger
images, so we encourage content providers to provide better quality images
on devices that can handle them.

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Received on Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:02:30 UTC