RE: [Powerbox] A RESTful proposal for Web enabling devices

Here are the main points I raised in the call.

This work seems more appropriately placed in the Web API group work in
the Webapps group. There is nothing inherently "device" related in this
proposal; the device is an abstracted resource provider with URL-based
resources. Thus it fits more with the general work on Web API's. It
certainly may be applicable for access to device resources, and the
adaptation of it for DAP use could be considered once the proposal has
demonstrated traction in the marketplace, e.g. published as a W3C
specification and implemented for use in accessing generic web
resources. But in the meantime, DAP should focus on the existing models
for API definition based upon Javascript objects, which are well
understood and widely used in the marketplace.

For the user, "an understandable interaction based upon an adequate
mental model" as mentioned on the call is a pretty high goal to capture
in terms of concrete security requirements. This requires the user to be
able to understand in any context, and this ability is affected by the
limitations of the user interface (both output and input), and in a lot
of cases upon the users themselves (e.g. maturity). Further, in the
mobile context, placing the onus on the user to understand based upon
the limited information that can be presented, and
adequately/effectively interact with the UI based upon the limited input
controls, both diminish the user's ability to depend upon intuitive UI
designs which require less effort to assess and interact, thus provide
more opportunity for a user's reasoning over security issue. Thus there
is a need for applications to request and obtain session and blanket API
access, either with user input or automatically (e.g. based upon a prior
approval).

Thanks, 
Bryan Sullivan | AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: public-device-apis-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-device-apis-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Tyler Close
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 10:49 AM
To: W3C Device APIs and Policy WG
Subject: [Powerbox] A RESTful proposal for Web enabling devices

Mark Miller, Marc Seaborn and myself have created a draft proposal for
a RESTful approach to addressing the design challenges this WG is
working one. The Powerbox is a general purpose mechanism for
introducing customer content to new and potentially private resources.
New kinds of resources can be made accessible to Web content by using
the Powerbox for discovery and introduction, existing user-agent APIs
such as XMLHttpRequest for interaction, existing MIME media types for
syntax, and HTTP methods for general semantics.

The attached proposal provides exact details on how a Powerbox works,
provides advice on how to use it and explains one example use-case,
making a video camera accessible to Web content. I hope to expand the
proposal with additional examples. Please suggest examples you'd find
compelling.

We hope this proposal can provide a basis for this WG's design work,
so we're interested in feedback on the proposal and how it might
better meet the needs of this WG.

--Tyler

Received on Wednesday, 24 February 2010 16:32:14 UTC