Webtv

Tue Jan 14 09:50:35 EST 1997

I've already had one friend suggest that WebTV will make AOL users look
like Unix programmers (I'm not sure who suffers most in that
comparison!).  At least it gives people something to do with that
awkward half hour between Seinfeld and ER.

Lessee here.  Joy!  Another set of proprietary HTML extensions. 
Goodies like <sidebar>, <shadow>, <font effect=emboss> and
<audioscope>.  I think we're having enough trouble standardizing our
document markup, thanks, and at least Netscape and Microsoft pay lip
service to the standards process (if not much else).  Not exactly a
service to the Web community in general.

What else?  A style guide that says TV users will find it easier to
read light text on a dark background (a style guide which nevertheless
specifies <body bgcolor="#efefef">).  So I'm sure the browser defaults
to light on dark.  No?  Well, then surely it must let users change the
default color scheme and override colors specified in the document,
right?  No?  Hmm.  Not exactly a service to users who might actually
find their way to substantive documents and want to read them.  Unless
they hook up a printer and...  Oh.

On reflection, my biggest concern is that shovelling another mound of
newbies onto the Web with no clear purpose in mind can't do much except
further the cause of the Web as user-supported advertising channel;
access just for access' sake doesn't grab me.  By contrast, many of us
on this list are working toward a Web that can do more serious work,
and many of our projects will rely on increased computing power at the
client end, probably including Java, and integration with a client
system that can at least do stuff like save search results, fire up a
PDF viewer and other helper apps, and print documents.  Even the
spaciest notions of an all-Java Network Computer include a file server
somewhere in the background (oddly, most of the NC plans come from
people who *love* to sell high-margin Unix servers or high-margin Unix
software...).  I hope that the Web will leave behind anything with the
current WebTV's limited capabilities; if WebTV chooses to make their
service more powerful and try to catch up, that's fine with me.  

Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu
Ohio Library and Information Network