(10) Closed World Assumption

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Abraham Maslow [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow]

• People, such as content creators, typically are lazy
  • developing content and code for diverse users and clients is hard
  • by making assumptions, this job can become considerably easier
• Tools often hide complexity and/or take away freedom
  • they are good if tool users know what they are doing
  • tool users should know alternatives and when to switch tools
• Tool makers provide support for lazy people
  • built-in simplifications of the tool's target technology
  • pre-packaged excuses why it is appropriate to use the tool

(11) Your Tax $ @ Work

• How to apply for NSF grants [http://www.grants.gov/applicants/apply_for_grants.jsp]
• Over $400 billion in grants each year
• PureEdge is required as the technology to fill out grant forms
  • acquired by IBM [http://www-306.ibm.com/software/swnews/swnews.nsf/n/nhan6eerne] and now called IBM Workplace Forms [http://www-142.ibm.com/software/workplace/products/product5.nsf/wdocs/formshome]
• All of this probably looked nice for the final demo …
• Web forms do not provide all the features required by the specification
  • offline editing of applications is not possible, Web forms work online only
  • there is no built-in signing of form contents, but there are technologies for it

(12) Version 1: Go IE or Go Home

• Well, but not if you are using Vista …
• PureEdge is an IE plug-in for filling out forms online and offline
  • plug-ins are specific for the browser for which they are developed
  • plug-ins are specific for the OS on which they run

(13) Version 2: Buy a Virtual Computer

• Government authorities are (usually) concerned about accessibility
  • restricting $400 billion of grant money to IE users only seems a bit restrictive
  • is there a reasonable argument to be made for this restriction
• Grants.gov recommended to get a virtual PC to access the portal
  • users have to buy virtual PC software
  • users have to buy Windows to run on the virtual PC

(14) Version 3: Use a Virtual Computer

• Grants.gov set up a Citrix server for grant applicants
  • Citrix server licenses are not cheap to buy
  • applicants still have to install the Citrix client (which is free)
  • running a Citrix server farm is pretty expensive

(15) Version 4: Crash your Computer

• After some time, PureEdge for Mac was released [http://www.grants.gov/resources/download_software.jsp#pureedgeviewer], features include:
  • occasional crashes and subsequent loss of any unsaved data
  • inability to run on Mac OS version prior to 10.4.6

(16) Classical Lock-In

• Companies usually sell products, not just solutions
• Lock-in happens quickly and is hard to escape from later
• Lock-in usually carries a pretty high price tag
• Lock-in solutions can be good, but it is an important decision
• Standards-based solutions may lack some sophistication
  • but often they may still be good enough to solve a problem
  • being able to change the platform easily is a valuable asset

(18) About Me

• Computer Science at Technical University of Berlin (TUB) [http://www.tu-berlin.de/eng/] (88-91)
• Ph.D. at ETH Zürich [http://www.ethz.ch/index_EN] (92-97)
• Post-Doc at ICSI, Berkeley [http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/] (97/98)
  • book on Technical Foundations of the World Wide Web [http://dret.net/netdret/publications#wil98]
• Various activities in Switzerland (98-06)
  • teaching at ETH Zürich [http://www.ethz.ch/index_EN] and FHNW [http://www.fhnw.ch/]
  • working as independent consultant (training, courses, consulting)
  • research in various XML-related areas [http://dret.net/projects/]
• Professor at the School of Information [http://ischool.berkeley.edu/] (since Fall 2006)
  • Technical Director of the Information and Service Design (ISD) program [http://isd.ischool.berkeley.edu/]

(19) About this Course

• Course Web page: http://dret.net/lectures/web-fall09/ [./]
• Course mailing list: web-fall09@bspace.berkeley.edu [mailto:web-fall09@bspace.berkeley.edu]
  • archived in the bspace email archive [https://bspace.berkeley.edu/portal/site/8a9055d1-74ba-4cc9-a4a1-19d7f6d7b16f/page/acb4a4ee-7471-48bd-b308-19c4e2e7233c]

(20) About these Slides

• Generated from Hotspot [http://dret.net/projects/xslidy/] XML [web-fall09.xml]
• Designed for online presentation and use (lots of links!)
  • Firefox Go Up [http://dret.typepad.com/dretblog/2008/07/go-up.html] allows easy navigation up one level
  • Firefox Site Navigation Bar [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1949] supports navigation of links
  • Firefox Link Widgets [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2933] requires a bit more configuration (more flexibility)
  • for printing, use a (all slides), and then s (smaller font) a couple of times
• A good real-world example for Web-based publishing
  • Slidy/Kilauea is useful, but there is no support for structures and hyperlinking
  • Hotspot adds these features by adding an XSLT transformation
  • Hotspot is useful, but there is no interface (XML editing only)

(21) Additional Resources

• Online Glossary at http://dret.net/glossary/ [http://dret.net/glossary/]
  • suggestions, updates, corrections are very welcome (really!)
  • another exercise in how to use XML and XSLT for information management
• Bibliography at http://dret.net/biblio/ [http://dret.net/biblio/]
  • suggestions, updates, corrections are very welcome (really!)
  • produced by an XML-centric system for managing bibliography data
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) [http://www.w3.org/]
  • headed by Tim-Berners Lee [http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/], inventor of the Web (with Robert Cailliau [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cailliau])
• The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) [http://www.ietf.org/]
  • mainly Internet standards, but also responsible for URIs and HTTP (and Atom)