Talk:Drumbeat/p2pu/courses/wikiwysiwyg

Well this is a first draft of everything that I could fit into words.

It's probably too scary in its present form. Hopefully it will evolve into something friendly soon.

I'm moving technical details to the talk page, because it probably causes confusion and maybe someone will propose a simpler mechanism.

Global Plan

Need a simple explanation of what this is.

How does this move from abstract idea to a concrete manifestation? (this is feedback from a friend)

Builder point of view

In order to understand how this can be built, several things must be considered at the same time (this is not a complete list and some points may be removed or reworded)

I have now removed the technical details. They reside in the history and should serve as a reference for something that is not defined yet.

The main hypothesis (written H) goes like this:

Let S be a snapshot of a hosted project (even a simple tutorial or a definition is a project).

Let U(S) be a user's modification of the project S.

H : [ diff[S, U(S)] == how the user learns ] = true

The diff[] is the same diff you can use in the history section of a wiki.

1. Now suppose we start a project that has the goal to define the open web.

S = Definition of the Open Web

Def.: The Open Web is blablabla

2. User1 downloads this definition and tinkers with it (in order to assimilate it)

U(S) = Definition of the Open Web (U's point of view)

Def.: The Open Web is blublublu

3. This process goes on for a while with many user's participating.

4. Eventually it is hoped that concensus and dissenting definitions will concretely appear.

User point of view

We're going to have to find a balance between theory and practice here. There is probably a different balance for each user: 50-50 for some, 20-80 for others, etc. Again, this is not a complete list, some points can be removed or reworded.

1. How do we treat definitions of Open Web Concepts? Link to courseware? Link to wikipedia? Examples?

2. Need a tutorial chain for the most common use cases. For example, when a user clicks on a link in a webpage: we could have a tutorial chain explaining how links are rendered on the screen, how this results in packets of information being sent on the internet, what a server is, how the server reacts to these packets, how it sends back new packets, how these packets get to the browser, how the browser deals with these new packets, and how the new page appears on the screen. This tutorial chain should be connected to everything else the user would need in order to understand and see it in action.

3. Need for a Hello World Section for each language: HTML, CSS, php, JavaScript, perl, etc. (these already exist, which do we chose?)

4. Need for an explanation on the difference between a Hello World application and a full fledged application. Many little applications can be "glued" together to form very functional applications. There are many different ways to "glue" applications together. There are different types of "glue". Need a more concrete explanation of this "gluing" concept.

5. Need for a compiling tutorial. The faster a new user learns how to compile the better. Even though mark up languages don't need to be compiled, they only form the superficial aspect of the Open Web. You could consider a 'manual compiling badge' that displays the number of different compilations a user has succesfully accomplished.

6. Need for a SVN tutorial. Most open source projects use it.

7. Drupal tutorials (are they chain linked? if not, can they be chain linked?)

On the type of help that is needed

Please be advised that I "judge" help based on ego (or lack of it). The more ego I smell in your help, the less chance it has of getting in here. New users don't need to know how great you are, or how many badges you have, or whatever mechanism that would impose your superiority.