Tech Tidbits

Theory of the Web as One Big Database

If you posit that the web is an object database, then you can start using it like one. Use ReST, XML and XQuery, URLs as UIDs, you can envision the web as a bunch of objects with unique identifications with a simple tool set. Then if the various web sites are set up with this in mind, others can write database applications that use the sites like database files. It is up to the creators of content on the web to produce well designed unique IDs and well formed objects (web pages/files). Sprinkle in some standards within the documents and web database applications can be written that pull from across the entire web.

XQuery

Plays nice with XML docs. Create simple statements that can screenscrape, create RSS feeds from multiple documents without programming, and as a W3C standard could be used to do much without proprietary languages.

Site Maps

Site maps can be a simple listing of pages with or without links to the pages. There is a standard xml format that Google/Yahoo/MSN and others use to aid with discovering web pages on your site.

RESTful Web Services

Imagine that web sites are both human readable and machine readable. Simplicity itself.

Copy and Export Your Web Site

If your web site is well constructed as part of the One Big Database, copying your site for archival or demonstration purposes can be very simple. Having your site exported to another web hoster using another software package has been nearly impossible. By adhering to good web architecture, your site should be able to be exported from one system to another and even keep your URLs intact.

Plone 3.0

A content management that makes managing a breeze for everyone so geeks are not a bottleneck for content. And the architecture makes URLs that are elegant, blows away the silliness that relational database driven web sites spawn, and makes complying with standards painless.

RSS

Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, PodCasting are all ways to say have an XML document that lists an index of recent web site additions that can be systematically captured by external sites or services.

Dublin Core

Metadata standard that is universal. Can be given a flavour such as for legislative documents.

Legislative Data Standards

As Congress moves to XML and persistent and thoughtfully formed URLs for documents, the ability of web sites to use these as standards for indexing and labeling related online documents effectively becomes possible. And the possibilities are endless.

PURLs of Wisdom

URL's are the glue that binds the web together. Being unique, they can also serve as definitive "name" and be used like "tags."

Object Database

An object database is an amazing method to store data compared to relational databases. A well constructed web site might be considered an object database which is a reason that Plone is an excellent system for building sites (Plone uses the Zope Object Database at its core).

Regular Expressions

Patterns in text can best be described or found by using regular expressions.

Faceted Browsing

 

The Gist of GIS

Mapping is the most enticing graphical presentation, but one of the most difficult to generate. Fortunately there will be tools that allow web managers to have their content presented in maps with or without doing mashups/integration with Google Earth/Google Maps/Microsoft Live maps/Yahoo Maps.

A SIP of VOIP

Integrating phones with the Internet.

OpenID

This is the system that allows authentication using URL/domain based IDs that give the Internet user the reins in terms of using various IDs that they have control over the security, passwords, and even administration.

#hashtag

For Twitter, SMS and other ~140 character message systems, the hash tag (aka the pound or number sign) provides a simple metadata or tag for each message.

Hash Tag Collection