RE: web proper names

Uche Ogbuji wrote:

>"intranet environment" is not "the real, muddy world", which is where I
>said machine merging magic is impractical (because there is no centrally
>controlled grounding of symbols).

I cannot let this one go by without comment.  An "intranet environment" is
both real and muddy.  Many integration problems within such environments
could be tackled with SW technologies, just as many IT solutions in such
environments today are web-based.  I realize that some key players in the
SW have such a well-formed vision of its ultimate deployment that they 
consider "smaller", near-term applications to be distracting and even counter 
productive to pursue.  However, I believe that such applications will be 
critical in proving and perfecting the current layers.  Success stories in 
this area will be key in enabling SW technology to pass through that part of 
the Gartner Hype Cycle [1], the Trough of Disillusionment, that will inevitably 
be encountered on the way to that ultimate SW vision.

So I applaud the pursuit of a SW which will scale to the full web and
not depend on centralized control, but please stop discounting enterprise 
wide networks as being invalid test and deployment environment for SW 
technologies and tools in the near-term.

-Evan

Evan K. Wallace
Manufacturing Systems Integration Division
NIST

[1] http://www4.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8.jsp

Received on Friday, 1 October 2004 15:22:51 UTC