Sarah Allen's Weblog

what is a "Rich Internet Application?"

Kevin Lynch posted last week about Flash applications that are "starting to appear." However not everything done in Flash is a rich internet application, and it is a challenge to sift through these showase sites to find great examples. There is a fine line between dynamic content and a web application.

I've spent some time over the past week trying to understand my own definition of a "Rich Internet Application." I discovered that in my mind I have mapped "Rich Internet Applications" to "good user interface design." Perhaps I've been drinking too much Kool-Aid...

Macromedia writes that "Rich Internet Applications combine the functionality of desktop software applications with the broad reach and low-cost deployment of web applications—resulting in significantly more intuitive, responsive, and effective user experiences."

Sadly desktop software GUIs are not always the pinnacle of user experience, and some of the best web applications that I've seen use techniques that are rarely seen in desktop applications.

I've started to collect some links to web applications that use techniques that are significantly different from HTML and desktop UI. I think an entirely new category is starting to emerge...
* Visual Thesaurus: graph for display and navigation
* Market Map: uses color and space to display information relationships
* Iokio's camerafinder: iconic representation of a result set
* Genetic Shoes: smooth navigation and progressive display of information

the people don't want war

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leader. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them you're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.''
                 -- Herman Goering, Hitler's second in command

Support our troops. Stop the war.

wikis are cool

I must have been living under a rock... Ward Cunningham is my newest hero. He developed WikiWikiWeb in 1995. It has clearly evolved a lot over the years and now has some nice spin-off open source efforts. "Wiki Wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian and it sure is a quick way to make a site. Anyone can edit and add links, and even delete. Order is kept through social contract rather than by rules enforced through the software.

It took me only a few minutes to install UseModWiki this morning -- it will take me quite a bit longer to learn about Wiki culture and how to successfully cultivate a Wiki.

btw: I think that the rock I've been living under might be called "living in the world of proprietary software" or "search engines don't index dynamic content." Of course, maybe the internet is just a really big place with a lot of people doing neat stuff.

frogs, rodeos and human nature

The myth was debunked in 1995, but I first read it this morning. I found it heartening to read this story about the old frog-boiling myth.

I was was tipped off by "the unknown Flash Guy" who tells a story about a rodeo, which itself could be a parable of human nature, if it weren't also true.

rules and freedom

Sam Wan comments that "the coolest toys are the ones that give users the freedom to find their own uses for that toy."

In Vygotsky's Mind in Society, he notes that "play is the realm of spontaneity and freedom." However, in his studies of imaginative play in children, he observes that children will subordinate their own wants to the greater pleasure of following the rules. He concludes that "the essential attribute of play is a rule that has become a desire."

Rules provide freedom. The really fun toys give you just enough constraints to inspire creativity and make it easy to create great stuff.

web page presence

I just posted a new header graphic on this site: the artist's interpretation of an ultrasaurus. Actually, it is a SWF. It will tell you if someone is also viewing the site. Try it with your friends (or you can cheat and open two browser windows).

It's a work in progress. It's not so much fun knowing someone is there if you can't talk to them. As is, it seems spooky, or maybe just frustrating.

behavioral demographics

I was intrigued by the discussions of Microsoft's new 3° project, and in particular by Michael Gartenberg's observation that this software targets "a behavioral demographic not just an age demographic."

I never thought of it that way. I used to think that if we create compelling experiences for people on the internet -- virtual places that give back more than people put into them, then this real-time online stuff would finally prove useful to the general population. Over time I've recognized that a lot of change needs to happen before any sufficiently new technology catches on. Email was around for decades, but it was the web which drove most people to hook up their PCs to the Internet.

Instant Messaging has emerged as the killer app in this category of connected applications. The buddy list and its expression of presence fundamentally changed the nature of chat. I find it interesting to think in terms of a behavioral demographic. If you don't spend much of your time sitting in front of a connected PC, then Instant Messaging certainly loses its appeal.

With my archaic Win2K system, I can’t try 3° myself, but I checked out the online feature tour. The musicmix reminded me of the Shockwave musicjam by SS7X7. I love this stuff. I don’t know why –- I just think it is fun. However, for me it is a rare experience, rather than regular activity. Will the easy creation of personal on-line spaces complete with “winks” and desktop icons popularize this kind of experience? I’m not sure. Maybe I’m not NetGen-enough, but I still believe we need to work on a more diverse set of compelling applications.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the MSN people icons look like little ducks?

Are blogs the vanity press of the Internet?

Indeed. Their heritage is, of course, HTML. The original vanity press of the Internet. However, this style of self-publishing arrives with different connotations than self-publishing in the world of books of paper. It is inexpensive and easy. If your uncle's dog has a website, why not you?

Web sites and, lately, blogs provide indices to the vast world wide web. Find a like-minded individual, sift through their personal musing and selected links, and you enter the web through a friendly portal. When I can find 'em, I prefer an individual's quirky view of the web to search-engine-generated lists of sites.

After lurking in the land of blogs for quite a while, I've decided to create one of my own. It feels a little strange to write words for a potential audience of anonymous strangers. Oddly, I never felt that way about writing software.

I imagine in my mind's ear that this story is for my friends and colleagues, but I'm posting it on the public Internet. Since I have benefited from the blogs of others, perhaps there are those in this sprawling 'net community that may be interested in mine.

Brand New Weblog

It was much easier installing moveabletype into this media temple account than it was getting it up and running on my Windows machine at home. I always like to have a local version of software to play with and it has been fun (in a geeky sort of way) getting to know the archane rites of MySql, perl, Apache, and whatnot.

Many thanks to
- the people of the opensource movement who wrote all this software
- Ric, who I don't know, but who wrote a great tutorial for setting up a windows server
- media temple for making it even easier than that
- and lastly, Kevin Lynch, who is always an inspiration, but specifically, in this instance, pointed me toward Moveable Type and, perhaps unknowingly, inspired me to create my own blog.