Web-Dedicated Metacard

[Richard Gaskin]

Sannyasin Sivakatirswami wrote:

> I changed the thread on this because I am also following the
> 
> MC-->PostGreSQL closely in its own right...
> 
> OK, so agreed, we can use Metacard to provide content over the web.
> I am doing it already in a very small way... but let's we discuss this
> in a larger context (we got 1.7 million visitors on just three of our
> domains in 2002... those are visitors, not hits)
> 
> If one broaches the subject of putting in time to develop content for
> MC based delivery, saying
> 
> "I can get 20 times the content ready for delivery in the same time it
> would take to get 1 unit of content out via HTML."  (I just spend a
> month of my time with another team member getting one book on line as
> HTML... amazing amount of human resources required to  do such a simple
> thing.)
> 
> The answer is typically "Well, that's nice, but you are not going to
> reach as many people... how many are going to download your plug in?
> You still have to get them to go via a browser and download your
> stuff... why not just put it up in html in the first place."
> 
> So, what kinds of strategies can anyone suggest to take this beyond the
> "consensus reality" barrier?

One usability argument is at:

  Beyond the Browser
  Rediscovering the Role of the Desktop in a Net-centric World
  <http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/netapps.html>

For public sites there are admittedly few compelling reasons to counter the
confusion factor with helper apps (keeping in mind that 100 is an average
IQ).

For intranets, however, there are many compelling arguments.  Perhaps the
most significant is the >$1 billion in productivity lost to US corporations
to employees doing random Web surfing.  MC provides a way to build
network-distributable content that is richer than the Web, can be more
cost-effective, and provides a focus limited to whatever the stakeholders
want.

There's also an argument for specialized content beng delivered to focused
public audiences, which will be evidenced in a modest lil' gadget I'll be
making available by Christmas eve....

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 Developer of WebMerge 2.1: Publish any database on any site
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