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Retooling the world wide web for its original purpose
- 1. Retooling the World Wide Web for its Original Purpose Bringing Innovation in the Web back to the University
- 2. Pre History
- 3. • e.g. AARNET, Bitnet, JANET (UK) • Low bandwith networks • High technical barrier to entry
- 5. • Usenet • Wais • Gopher • Archie and Veronica • and Anonymous FTP
- 6. Limitations • Still all text mode based • Still high technical barrier to entry • Didn’t build critiacal mass
- 7. The Iron Age
- 8. The Iron Age
- 9. AKA The birth of the WWW • (coincided with the first “user friendly” Unix (NeXt) • Reminder - the WWW links documents and media together
- 10. The Age of Steel
- 11. This is where I came in
- 12. • Developed a web site for a hospital research unit • Used the tools that I knew how • (Notepad)
- 13. But they broke computers! • Realised how crippled windows was • Separating design from content • How do I do this? • perl -p -i -e ‘s{<font.*</font>}{}g; {(<head>)}{$1<style>$blah</style>’ • Absence useful tools :-(
- 14. My Replacement Broke It -----Original Message----- From: Kieren Diment Sent: Friday, 20 September 2002 11:46 To: IDENTITY PROTECTED Subject: Website problem The new java applets for the website only work with java enabled web browsers, It is unfriendly for people with disabilities. I suggest that you should revert to a text based navigation system for the website as currently it will not work well with screen readers, or will not work well if at all with older computers, [ Comments on IE only features snipped ] ---- Reply ---- Thats true about your comments, but I think Microsoft has monopolised the IT market and everyone besides you is using IE. I dont think diabled people will be going to the computer shop asking for UNIX systems of NETscape browsers.
- 15. 3 Years Later...
- 16. The Age of Silicon
- 17. Another Project • I learned Perl and began using Linux • I was asked to do another website • Scoop (http://kuro5hin.org) seemed to be a candidate for a web based research hub
- 18. But ... Problems • mod_perl • Dedicated server required • Very hard to debug • Mixture of content and presentation • Too many features • Spent too much time customising by feature removal
- 19. But it must have been a little successful • Because I was asked to do it again!
- 20. This time we’ll do it from scratch • Enter Maypole. • Develop a databased backed web application in ~ 10 lines of code.
- 21. But... • Spending 90% of the time dealing with Maypole and Class::DBI problems.
- 22. Fighting the problems • By Doing Evil • Stuffing controller logic into templates • Particularly authentication/authorization logic
- 23. Same problems again • mod_perl == mod_no_debugger
- 24. Positive Outcomes • I have a prototype • And a happy client who wants to pay me again • (at the next funding round :-/ )
- 25. Two Tier System • Public Website • Private research source and output (publications) repository • Private area has option to push out to public site
- 26. Enter Catalyst • Extendable • Model Agnostic • Supports Test driven development • And we’ll come to why this is important
- 27. The Public Site is Solved • Evaluating options for the private repository
- 29. Social Bookmarking for Scientists • GPL • Backed by a reputable publisher (NPG) • But...
- 30. Community Problems • GPL in name only • Limited Community • Don’t accept patches • Their production code != the GPL code • NO TEST SUITE
- 31. Technical Problems • mod_perl == mod_no_debugger • Class::DBI • (Sub::WrapPackages + Smart::Comments) • 20MB of error log per request • Class::DBI causes deep recursion errors!
- 32. And... • The data model is wrong by being too right
- 34. Zotero • Standalone XUL + sqlite application for Firefox 2 • But Removes collaboration features • Particularly incidental collaboration features
- 35. Zotero cont. • Better (less correct) data model • But would better be implemented as a server based collaborative application.
- 36. Wrap up: Evaluating the Community
- 37. Look at your OSS community and ask: • Do the same questions come up again and again? • Are there critical show stoppers? • How big is the community? • Can you get free support? • From what routes? IRC, ML?