[Zope] WebDav wishful thinking WEBCR ideas.questions

[Jason Cunliffe]

Hello

Perhaps this message is off-Zope topic perhaps not. I am looking at an
application area and wondering about the direction Digital Creations and
zope are taking and whether they fit the idea...

I confess I don't understand this WebDav stuff yet. But reading about it
has got me dreaming again on a favorite theme: choreography and
temporal-spatial indexing of networked information

Comments about WebDav enabled browsers, plus recent announcement MS and
Digital Creations.Zope getting stronger in sync make me wonder what they
are capable of, suitable for.

Is it possible for make a drg'n'drop page in Zope which would allow for
fast and efficient building of web pages> For example where there are many
links and lists. The immediate pragmatic application is the endless need to
compile pages of web-related research with href links and build this
quickly among a group of people over the web.

I often end after a session up with 20+ good web pages open for some given
area of research topic. Typically I add these to 'favorites' and do some
fast cut'n'paste into emails to send to colleagues. If I get unlucky the
whole system crashed before I have the time or energy to organize it nicely
in to a web page or print out etc. 

What I want to do is drag'n'drop from the already open pages onto a Zope
page and then the following actions will automatically occur:

1. Title and href link will be added
2. any selected text on the page will be copied as well under href link
3. An email will be sent alerting users 'subscribed' to this page of new
links and/or update notice

4. The newly added links can be highlighted automatically or identified
with some icon or text attribute and remain like this until more are added
5. Users can add to the links and their user_id will be tagged and
timestamped next to it
6. Statistics can be gathered which allow to review which links have been
accessed [through this site of course] by whom and how often etc. ie for
group learning or research it is easy to determine  use, interest etc.
7. Finally I wan to record and playback a 'research thread' so that I can
visit a set of pages in a certain order, perhaps add some comments and then
store or send this thread to others so that when they play it back in
effect they can be guided through my web journey. 

Basic 'WEBCR' navbar controls should allow  pause rewind, annotate, and
branch etc. This can then be linked to systems such a Conversa
[http://www.conversa.com] to allow a smooth bridge between research and
training. Say on an intranet, or some course context, students, trainees
could play through rapidly prepared web-based materials. But instead of
requiring very intensive pre-paration of materials one could offer fast,
affordable and dynamic site building which uses the existing and changing
web resource to best effect.

SMIL protocol might be one way to handle annotations and timing and could
link in nicely because of Python implementations. But even without this a
simple timing mechanisms could be built in Zope using Python External
Methods. Checking for cached pages would be useful to allow more reliable
service. XML and cataloguing tools could be of great service.

Perhaps WebDav has nothing to do with it.. if so please enlighten me..
The basic problem I am tackling is that if I want to explain and refer to a
load of interesting stuff I have found on the web, I can often best do it
by sitting someone down next to me and take them for a 'guided tour'.
Failing that I can send them an email with URLs and handy comments, but
immediately they lose the rhythm and sense of priority. Group sessions are
even harder. And I have no way of knowing how far the y got or whether they
jumped off or got lost or what. And even with the best of intentions, it is
hard for them to relay replay for me what they did, where they went and saw.. 

Serendipity is very valuable in web surfing, but so too are reliably shared
experiences. It is this last which I am concerned about now. As more and
more resources, help files, training, docs etc are HTML or XML based, I
believe the need will grow to create a navigable web-tree which can be
stored, recorded, replayed, etc. 

Your comments welcome
- Jason 
-------------------------------------------------
Jason Cunliffe  <jasonic@nomadicsltd.com>
NOMADICS.STUDIO(Design Director)
Geo-Digital Arts and Technology
Le Vieux Moulin,  Route de Mons
83440  SEILLANS,  FRANCE
Tel: +33 (0)4 94.76.98.72    
Fax: +33 (0)4 94.76.97.77