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Future Web Trends Brian Kelly UK Web Focus UKOLN University of Bath [email protected] The Web is great! Or is it? This seminar will investigate limitations of the Web and possible solutions UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based. How Does The Web Work? The web is based on 3 protocols: • URLs: addresses of resources • HTTP: dialogue between client and server • HTML: format of resources The Netsoft home page Welcome to Netsoft Web Browser (client) 2 1 User clicks on link to the address (URL) http://www.netsoft.com/hello.html 2 Browser converts link to HTTP command (METHOD): Connect to computer at www.netsoft.com GET /hello.html 3 Remote computer sends file <HTML> <TITLE>Welcome</TITLE>.. <P>Welcome to <B>Netsoft </B> 4 Local computer displays HTML file Web server What's It Used For? The simplicity of the Web has resulted in little-used academic tool (50 servers in early 1994) now being widely used in a wide range of applications. 3 Web Problem Areas What difficulties have you encountered when using the Web? What other problem areas can you envisage? 4 Hands-On Exercise Now spend some time accessing Web resources. Make notes of any problem areas you come across. 5 Review What were the problems? 6 1. Searching • How many hits did you get for the term Digital Library using AltaVista? • How useful is this result? • Was Google any better? 7 1. Searching - Comments Results • AltaVista gives over 132,000 hits • Which ones are important? • Google gives better relevance Developments • Google uses "citation analysis" • Use of metadata, such as Dublin Core, will also improve things in the future 8 2. Web Technologies - Comments The Flash file format: • Is proprietary • Requires a Flash plugin • May not be visible in old browsers • Text can't be copied The W3C are developing an open format known as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 9 See http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/ 3. PDF Adobe's PDF (Page Description Format): • Provides control over appearance of document • Is easily created • Viewers are freely available But: • Proprietary • Describes appearance not document structure 10 3. Comments on File Formats CSS: • Cascading Style Sheets • An open standard developed by W3C • Separates document structure (defined in HTML/XML) from the appearance • Makes maintenance of resources much easier <link rel="style" src="sty.css" <h1>Heading</h1> <p>…</p> Imagine 10,000 HTML files .. 11 http://www.w3c.org/Style/CSS/ body {background: blue;} h1: {font-family: arial} p: {font-family: times; text-align: justify} With 1 CSS file 4. E-commerce Would you buy from an e-commerce site such as Amazon? What are the implications of ecommerce? 12 4. E-commerce Comments E-commerce: • Requires trust • Requires security • Is there a viable business model? Developments: • Digital signatures • Public Key Infrastructure • Athens and Sparta in UK HE 13 http://www.w3.org/Signature/ 5. The Mobile Web The mobile Web: • Much hype at present • Have you used it? • Is it usable on such a small screen with slow network times? • What about the resources need to build a WAP site and a Comments: Web site • Resources need to build a WAP site and a Web site • Store resources in neutral format and generate WAP and Web 14 5. The Mobile Web Comments Store resources in neutral format (XML) and generate WAP and Web XML: open storage format XSLT: Transform XML XML XSLT rules XSLT engine WML file for WAP XHTML for Web 3G promises multimedia and faster networks 15 6. Authoring Authoring Web pages: • Was easy • Becoming more difficult as Web becomes more complex • More difficult to maintain For large Web sites there is a need for: • More sophisticated tools e.g. content management systems • Tailoring content for devices? 16 7. Size Issues Nos. Of Web servers in HEIs 17 Institution No. of Links Cambridge Oxford Edinburgh 231,339 164,307 125,603 Imperial Leeds 125,417 99,801 Question Time Any questions? 18 End of Presentation 19