RE: A "one size fits all" personalized web page?

Hi, Charles

I'm not sure I would totally agree with the areas you listed in agreement.
If someting is good, that doesn't necessarily mean it should be everywhere.

If at one point of time, it is possible to meet people's needs with one
item, that doesn't necessarily mean it is the best solution.  One
possibility is cutting download time with smaller versions rather
than one big version.  Also, if the needs change over time, early preparation
may be easier with multiple versions.

Shared experience is only one aspect.  What are people willing to give
up in order to have a shared experience?

Scott


> Scott,
> 
> Let us first examine areas where we all seem to be agreed:
> 
> 1. Something that is helpful to a group of people, and does not cause a
> problem for others, is good, and should be everywhere. It is particularly
> important for such a thing to be where those people are or are trying to be.
> 
> 2. Different people have different needs, and one of our basic goals is to
> work out how to meet those needs, in particular with respect to using the
> web.
> 
> 3. Doing something that meets people's needs is good, even if it is possible
> to do something better that meets people's needs. But doing something better
> is better (by definition)
> 
> Now, consider a couple more propositions that I think will meet agreement,
> but I'm not certain:
> 
> 1. Where it is possible to meet those needs by making one thing that everyone
> can use, instead of making differnt things for different people, that is
> preferable. 
> 
> I suggest that this is true substantially because people are social, and want
> to be able to share their experience with other people, and in many cases do
> not want to be constrained to sharin them with other people who have the same
> set of needs. In addition, people don't live to work - they want to do what
> is necessary and be done with it. This gives rise to a risk of the "good
> enough" solution that works for "enough" people, in place of an actual
> solution, that solves the problems people face.
> 
> 2. In producing material for the web, presentation and semantic content
> should be as separate as possible.
> 
> I accept this on faith from computer scientist and information scientists,
> but it seems to make sense as a basic requirement for being able to represent
> information in various different types of system.
> 
> (I'm still trying to tease out what I think are a lot of issues you initial
> questions raise, and so I'm trying to home in by establishing some common
> ground or at least some reference points).
> 
> Cheers
> Charles McCN

Received on Thursday, 13 January 2000 14:22:34 UTC