I’m Jeff Allie the tech guru here and I'd like to present a white paper entitled "The New ABC's". The focus of the paper is to open the discussion on the impact of "web 2.0" on the educational publishing community. The goal is to present in layman's terms how the new dynamic web works and what the term "dynamic" really means.
We're intending this to stimulate a lively discussion on the subject and we look forward to exchanging ideas and knowledge within the community. Hopefully some of the descriptions herein help clarify what to some is an impenetrable maze of acronyms-CSS, RSS, PHP, XML and so forth.
The New ABC's
As becomes increasingly clear we are in an era of great and rapid technological change. Although the internet era is only beginning to show signs of maturity, the impact of what's become known as “web 2.0” is being felt everywhere.
For the educational publishing community the new technology tools imply the promise of great innovation and the uncertainty of imminent change. Here at The Development Source our goal is to “open the conversation” with all members of the community-publishers, authors, teachers and administrators, students and parents.
The Development Source has a mission to provide solutions utilizing the best of the past and most promising of the future. Great textbooks and great teachers have been linchpins of our education system for generations. We seek not to replace either but enhance the student learning experience by integrating the astounding collaboration, content creation and community potential of the emerging web with tried and true methods.
Acronym soup
A source of confusion for many trying to get a handle on “web 2.0” is the veritable alphabet soup of acronyms describing various innovations. Is CSS like RSS? Is Xml and XHTML the same? Are widgets the same as gadgets-and what do they do????
The following is a layman's description of some of the key features of the web 2.0-user experience.
Let's breakdown the user experience
Our development teams analyze each job with the goal of engineering a specific solution to each customer need. For the internet content we create, we design and engineer based upon the desired user experience.
To effectively deliver, we need to create experiences that fully leverage the potential power of web 2.0-community, collaboration, user generated content, instant communication, extensible database capabilities and more.
From our perspective we break down the user experience into distinct “front end”, “back end” and middleware areas. In sharing our design philosophy we will also introduce, in context, many of the web 2.0 terms you may be becoming familiar with via exposure to TV, the internet-or your children!
With this in mind lets begin with a few observations about the current stage of the internet experience in general and then get specific about what does what!
Content is King!
Now something of a cliché, this phrase began circulating during the boom years in Silicon Valley. Clearly this is now true and to educational publishers this is great news! Copyright holders, content owners and content creators all must be sure to understand the implications of the web 2.0 potential to ensure they fully leverage their extant and new properties.
For computer delivered content delivered via the internet, the experience takes place in the users browser be it Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla or others. Contemporary browsers allow for a very rich media user environment filled with user content and collaborative possibilities.
To help publishers re-imagine the potential value of their content assets we will now discuss some of the technical features of the browser or “front end” that help deliver contemporary (or re-purposed legacy) content.
Three types of sites
In the roughly 15 years the internet has been a commercial medium we have witness the evolution of three types of sites:
the static site-associated with the emergence of the internet, these sites are really individual web pages linked together (underlined words indicate links, etc.) with no interactive features perhaps minus an ability to send somebody at the site en email. Often called “brochures in space”.
the interactive site-early e-commerce sites and probably the most common sites of today. A sign of interactivity is being able to submit data via forms, forums, chat, etc. These can be very media rich and widely linked but in contemporary terms are sluggish, often ill designed and clumsy to update, revamp, etc. Many very large sites of this nature cost millions of dollars and can now be effectively replaced (or intruded upon by savvy competitors) a great deal cheaper. Companies leveraged their wealth in this model and utilize technology they owned. They often developed proprietary software via company employees and maintained a large IT infrastructure.
the dynamic site-the emerging nature of the web sites built leveraging the web services (including open source materials) available, featuring a user controlled dynamic environment. In dynamic sites, pages exist only when they are “commissioned” by the behavior of the user to deliver content in the fashion the user requests. iGoogle for example, is a dynamic site-each user can add and subtract features at will to create an on-the-fly user experience.
Want the time? On the left” In the bottom? Should it look digital or like an old school clock-your choice. NY Times feeds? CNN? Ebay alerts? There are a plethora of choices and the user can decide how it is laid out, pick a personal color scheme, add friends-the list of features grows daily and is endless!
What makes dynamic, dynamic?
There are several innovations that have transformed the browser into the home of this dynamism. In the big picture the innovation is fueled by the continuing evolution in computer hardware and software. The phenomenon known as Moore's Law proceeds and each time it “doubles” there is a new round of possibilities smart software innovators exploits.
We have all witnessed to emergence of audio and video in recent years and with each increase in computing power and bandwidth more innovation becomes possible. And we would argue also inevitable-a concept we share with our partners when we develop.
So assuming a contemporary laptop user with high bandwidth here is how some of the dynamism is deliver in the browser (user) environment.
Most of us are familiar with javascript-a programming language for “client-side” (user) development. This and other types of “front end” scripting allow web designers to create a rich user experience. For example, scripts allow developers to empower users to do the above described content delivery customization in iGoogle.
So what about html? Html is not dead-yet! Html is a markup language that allows us to place content in a browser-however newer techniques such as scripts, extensible html, FLASH and more have lead to the adoption of new way of presenting content in exciting ways.
We mentioned CSS in the acronym soup section-this is a relatively new technique that allows us to separate document presentation “style” from documentation “content”. This separation allows designers to make changes in placement, fonts, colors, etc. distinctly from the content. It refers to “cascading style sheets” which mean that presentation changes can flow throughout a whole site with one code change versus having to change each page separately.
From the front to the back via PHP
What we see in the browser initially comes from databases of information that are accessed via the internet. To get from the browser to the information requested, PHP scripts are used to fetch the materials that create the html pages we see in the browser.
PHP most often connects to javascripts to XML “tagged” files residing on server side databases. PHP is an “open source” phenomenon developed by programmers in concert worldwide-it actually is a hypertext pre-processor with recursive intialism properties.
For our purposes PHP is the standard method for creating dynamic web pages creating the front-end experience via manipulation of database and browser resources.
XML and databases on the server side
Everyone is aware of the value of data in an information age. Publishers in particular understand the value of leveraging their content in as many forms as possible. The advent of the XML era has massive implications in terms of how publishers can exploit and deliver many forms of their digitized content.
XML is a markup language-as is html and indeed xhtml is an emerging phenomenon as the web moves toward the semantic era (web 3.0). In concert with front-end scripts, and PHP, XML allows the user to customize the information they specifically seek from databases.
One small example- in terms of “finding” information on the internet, the advent of XML “tagged” information allows for bloggers information to be “found” when they post their entries. Blogs are designed so that all input is automatically “tagged” and thus imminently searchable when users type in specific terms.
While many databases are Oracle or SQL Server by Microsoft, there is also the “open source” solution referred to as MySQL that is increasingly in use.
The Big Picture-how it all works together
While there is no single method in use to create user experiences, there are specific methods we employ to assure our customers we can deliver their content as they envision. The following example is a potential solution demonstrating the way we approach our customers needs.
One key component of our method is to analyze how best to leverage the currently available “web services”. Indeed, the best thinking these days tells us that we now leverage the network-in this case referring to the entire public internet.
For example it would seem unwise to spend millions of dollars for a website to commission the creation of a custom payment solution-a service such as PayPal can be so easily integrated into a contemporary site that recreating it's service scope seems unnecessary and unwise.
For The Development Source and EdYak sites we are leveraging an open source application we are customizing their social network architecture to create a social network specifically to meet the needs of the greater education publishing community. We also are leveraging flicker, youtube, and many other web services to deliver the most current and relevant content-as well as create a place where our community can share their own unique content.
So our site and the sites we develop for our customers are a heady stew of original content and design utilizing the best templates, platforms and existing solutions available.
Our front-end experience combines clean graphics (via CSS), audio, video, forums, chat, blogs, seminars and so forth. We send out content out via RSS – the publishing “feed” that allows all our content updates to be distributed freely to our subscribers and those who find us via search.
Various scripts allow us and our users to customize their experience in the site and our goal is to create a place where the “conversation” can take place with the goal of delivering the best results we can for students and teachers, school and families.
In the case of educational publishers we encourage them to understand the power of Content Management Systems and how establishing a contemporary CMS will be key to fully leveraging their content assets and will help guide the process of developing and delivering new content.
A few final thoughts
We want to be clear on the role of The Development Source and EdYak. We noticed a void in the educational publishing community from our perspective-a place where the interested community that comes together around the notion of the intersection of publishers, schools, teachers, authors, students and families can have a voice.
The Development Source created EdYak as a tool. It is not exclusively for us and our customers but for everyone involved in this vital niche. We believe the “wisdom of the crowd” is a valid notion and thus we offer this space as a place to debate, discuss and demonstrate the possibilities of the impact of new and emerging technology on education in the classroom and beyond.
As MySpace and Facebook have demonstrated, people with internet access have a great deal of enthusiasm for communicating, creating and collaborating. We envision a more focused community with a shared interest putting these incredible new tools to work on everyone's behalf.
Our vision is one that we think can help publishers ensure they remain profitable, relevant and aware of coming trends. We think we can help teachers and schools leverage many avenues to help them compel and inspire their students. We think we can help bring their families into the classroom via enhanced communication, content creation and collaboration tools and help students prepare for their careers armed with enhanced computer, communication and social skills.
