(2003-10-02) Bosworth Web Services Browser

Adam Bosworth has started blogging to develop a model for a Web ServicesBrowser. Universal Toolbox?

• on Jul24: The world is now holding its breath for a zero-install cross platform browser that talks Web Services to the net, not HTML.

• problems of web browsers with Off-Line use and push (system-initiated data transfer).

• but when I say "RichClient" from now on, I don't mean a VB look and feel let alone a Flash look and feel. Macromedia and the inimitable Kevin Lynch do that really well (a lot better than Microsoft) and I'll just stipulate that this can be the right thing. What I'm more interested in though is something that has the authoring simplicity and model of pages. and 3 requirements (previously-mentioned offline and push, plus ability to use the data in unanticipated ways)

• comparison to the MacroMedia Flash Central model. Instead of the old model in which you use 2 or 3 applications every day you tend to interact with hundreds or more every month or so. In this world, ease of use and discoverability are paramount, ease of authoring is key, and simplicity is all. Of course there are many applications that scream out for a product like Central. In general, however, I think they are applications that one expects to use over and over during the day in the ways many people used to use Office before email and the browser rendered it largely irrelevant.

• some specific ideas about implementing a Calendar application.

• options for generating a GUI from data.

• issues driven by Off-Line and uncertain connectivity use.

• responses to some comments. Proxy Server (on client) potential?

Jul'2004 update: because of SpamWars and other issues, Adam deleted most of those original posts. But he summarized much of that stuff in this post.