RE: Mr. Chips, Bob, UA, AI, and alternative UI's

Bruce,

Although I was not a fan of Microsoft Bob, I like the idea of using agent
technology.  To date, I have not really associated it in any way with Mr.
Chips.  Mr. Chips is just the name of a proposed support tool that might help
page content authors consider the issues important to usability and education.
I suppose that one approach would be to use the Microsoft Agent technology for
this purpose.

I think this extends beyond accessibility and I remain devoted to spending a
bit more time on basic web access issues before moving too far along with Mr.
Chips.

A few years back, Josh Krieger and I experimented with something we called
conditional HTML.  It allowed anyone visiting our test site to set a large
number of personal preference then it would deliver a customized web page to
the client's browser through a proxy server.  We had settings for text color
and size, background color, language, reading level, amount of media for
supporting meaning, and more. It seemed like a slippery slope.

New technologies such as XML and CSS were just around the corner and we felt
that they and additional browser capabilities would make it possible to
accomplish the same goals once standards had been established.  Now the
problem is that web content needs to be broken up into definable objects,
wrapped in meta data, and served as flexible and/or customizable content to a
local client to meet a wide range of preferences and needs.  We know how to do
this now but it will still take a while for content developers to prepare
media in a manner that makes this small vision of a malleable information and
education environment possible.

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Bruce Bailey
Sent: Friday, June 18, 1999 12:32 PM
To: 'Web Accessibility Initiative'
Cc: 'chitchcock@cast.org'
Subject: Mr. Chips, Bob, UA, AI, and alternative UI's


Okay, I am (again) exhibiting boorish behavior by responding to my own
posts, but I did some digging at the Microsoft site and found this URL
about "Uncork the Power of Microsoft Agent 2.0":
http://www.microsoft.com/Mind/0499/agent/agent.htm

Chuck, does Mr. Chips tie into this technology at all?



-----Original Message-----
Anybody remember "Microsoft Bob"?  Did anyone here try and use the
interface for addressing cognitive disabilities?
The most recent "news" I could find is almost two years old at URL:
http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/pcwo/0924/pcwo0112.html

Received on Friday, 18 June 1999 13:26:42 UTC