bare bones design

[Tom Tipsword]

> Margaret F. Riley said:

> Lack of telnet and lack of Usenet newsgroups.  It seems most people think
> of the web as *the Internet* and the newer ISP's are not providing all of the
> bells and whistles needed to get to it all.  Realize too that most public
> libraries  cannot provide telnet access and support for users of 
> their public systems, so I advise web developers to link to what 
> they can support on their own systems.

Telnet isn't a bell or whistle -- it's one of the <basic> building 
blocks of the Internet.  IMHO, the AOLs of the world are doing us all 
a major disservice by misrepresenting their email, chat room, and 
(more recently) web access as being "the Internet".   I don't even
consider any vendor who doesn't have something as basic as telnet an 
ISP, regardless of how they advertise themselves.

The issue of designing for the lowest common denominator brings up 
something that is both a fault and a virtue in us library folk -- 
trying to make everything easy and usable for everyone.  After 
wrestling with this for years I have come to the conclusion that no 
matter how much time and energy you put into making things "easy", 
somebody's going to push the wrong button or misconfigure things on 
their end and then blame it on "the system".  (As in the saying "make 
something foolproof and they'll make a better fool".)  I would like 
to put forth the radical concept that users have some responsibility 
to actually learn what is necessary to use new systems.

I'm not proposing abandoning user friendly design, or ignoring the 
lowest common denominator, merely noting that progress depends on 
stretching limits and that everyone is not going to be able to take 
full advantage of every advance immediately, nor should we feel 
guilty because this is the case.  We do both development 
and production in our shop and our philosophy has always been to 
maintain the practical (deliver reliable services that work) while 
expanding the possible (finding new ways to do things and new things 
to do).  We keep the entire spectrum of users in mind but design for 
both the high and the low end.  A lot of library systems, even the 
most advanced ones, strike me as being prime examples of new 
oldthink in that they are faster or better ways of doing the same 
old things we've always done.  Oh well, one of these days I'll get 
around to issuing that manifesto on the future of library systems.... 
:>

TNT


Tom Tipsword  
Systems Manager, Hunt Memorial Library      vox:  904-226-6601 
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University        fax:  904-226-6368
Daytona Beach, FL 32114

http://amelia.db.erau.edu/~tom/     tom at wilbur.db.erau.edu

"We need more fruitcakes in this world and less bakers." -- Jimmy 
Buffet.