[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Common Word Processing Format
Let me try this from another point of view. What are the qualities one wants from federated aka, 'mashup' pages built over services? o Seamlessness: no big glaring boo boos in format or behavior. o Reliability: no piece mysteriously failing and causing the other pieces to look bad o Composability: the ability to put pieces together quickly and intuitively Web components should fit together as neatly as Ludvig Von Beethoven's music. For my Christmas card this year, I recorded Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", all the characters, narration, sound effects, etc. I used Adobe Audition to do that in case that is interesting, but the real serendipity was choosing to use Ludvig Von's music over composing my own. Why? Because Beethoven and Dickens are close in era, so in timing, tone and theme, they are quite composable and reliable, but the delight is that Beethoven's works are seamless. I avoided the 'hits' (say Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata, opening of the Fifth, etc.) and grabbed bits of lesser known pieces and inner pieces of the symphonies. Some of these were composed years, even decades apart and recorded by different performers in different periods (had to do some serious click and pop removal but, that is what Adobe does well). They fit together seamlessly. The effect is as my wife says, 'enchanting'. Web Services Should Be Like Beethoven's Music: you can slice it and dice it and it just works. The level of knowledge of keys, transitions, melodic development, chordal progressions, dynamics and orchestration required are enormous yet almost all of his works are memorable, hummable and accessible. When he applied technical virtuosity, it was in service of the dynamic perceived by the user as emotional anticipation, fulfillment and release, not the performer's angst about playing fast and accurately on the device of the day. That is the challenge for the mashup component builder. When someone puts the services together, they have to just work. I can get that from Beethoven. The question would be, what would be the experience if I tried that with Beethoven and Mozart and Bach and Schumann. The challenge of today's software behemoths is exactly that: what happens if I take your components and mash them together? Will they just work? Will certain melodies stand out garishly in bad taste where taste matters? Or is it a matter of taste where taste is knowing what to choose or to stick to one company as I stuck to Beethoven even with that Mozart CD staring at me like Marley? If we are to pick common formats, we should choose based on the ability of the web service builder to compose, mashup, and serve up without seams, without glaring bugs, and with the ease of putting together slices in sequencing/recording systems that are to web pages what Adobe Audition is to audio production. len
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