Firefox/Projects/Herdict: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:42, 27 April 2010

Summary

Explore integrating the functionality of Herdict with Firefox's network error page.

Also see Atul's Pitch for a quick 2.5 minute overview of what this is about (requires Firefox >=3.5).

Current Status

Boriss, Laura Miyakawa and Atul had a phone meeting on April 27, 2010 to discuss the status of the project. Notes:

The heuristic for mapping Herdict raw data (the # of reports inaccessible vs. accessible) to definitive statements that can help average users (see Boriss' mockups) is unclear, and will probably need to be iterated on.

Exactly what Herdict's data can help average users with, especially insofar as Boriss' mockups are concerned, is unclear: the statement "Your network Firewall is preventing access to this website", for instance, simply doesn't appear to be something that Herdict's data can imply.

A number of aspects of Boriss' mockups like "Did you mean" are actually covered by cbartley's patch in bug bug 482874.

Atul's addon prototype is missing two key features: a "What is Herdict?" link and a mechanism to submit data on an inaccessible site to Herdict.

The next steps are for Boriss and Atul to regroup and figure out what the scope of this project is: if Herdict can only help us with statements like "This site is being reported as inaccessible in China", do we want to limit its scope to that, or do we want to expand the project's scope to include more things that can help make network error pages more helpful, such as bug 482874?

After the scoping is determined, we'll figure out what the roadmap for the project is.

Previous History

atul made a prototype XPI on 4/19/2010. See bug 552992 comment 1 for more information on this.

boriss wrote a blog post featuring her mock-ups on 1/4/2010.

On 12/23/2009, atul and boriss had a meeting with Herdict team members Laura Miyakawa and Jeffrey Licht to discuss mock-ups boriss had created.

Previously, on 12/4/2009, atul and boriss had an initial meeting with Herdict team members Laura Miyakawa and Jeffrey Licht to explore Firefox integration.

Next Steps

See Current Status section.

Related Bugs

bug 552992 - Create an addon prototyping Herdict-Firefox integration

Team

Project Lead: atul
Firefox contact: boriss
faaborg

Designs

See boriss' blog post from 1/4/2010 for mock-ups.

Goals/Use Cases

Explore adding Herdict's functionality to the Firefox network error page.

Non Goals

Adding the Herdict "sheep" icon to the Navigation Toolbar, or other dashboard-like functionality. For such use cases, the full-featured Herdict Firefox Add-on can be used.

Other Materials

Atul's prototype add-on and its source code
Herdict Server API (PDF)
Atul's Pitch

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 Explore integrating the functionality of [http://www.herdict.org Herdict] with Firefox's network error page.
+Also see [http://labs.toolness.com/ff-herdict-preso/ Atul's Pitch] for a quick 2.5 minute overview of what this is about (requires Firefox >=3.5).
 == Current Status ==
+Boriss, Laura Miyakawa and Atul had a phone meeting on April 27, 2010 to discuss the status of the project. Notes:
+* The heuristic for mapping Herdict raw data (the # of reports inaccessible vs. accessible) to definitive statements that can help average users (see Boriss' mockups) is unclear, and will probably need to be iterated on.
+* Exactly what Herdict's data can help average users with, especially insofar as [http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/herdict-and-its-tasty-anonymized-aggregated-data/ Boriss' mockups] are concerned, is unclear: the statement "Your network Firewall is preventing access to this website", for instance, simply doesn't appear to be something that Herdict's data can imply.
+* A number of aspects of Boriss' mockups like "Did you mean" are actually covered by cbartley's patch in bug {{bug|482874}}.
+* Atul's addon prototype is missing two key features: a "What is Herdict?" link and a mechanism to submit data on an inaccessible site to Herdict.
+The next steps are for Boriss and Atul to regroup and figure out what the scope of this project is: if Herdict can only help us with statements like "This site is being reported as inaccessible in China", do we want to limit its scope to that, or do we want to expand the project's scope to include more things that can help make network error pages more helpful, such as bug 482874?
+After the scoping is determined, we'll figure out what the roadmap for the project is.
+=== Previous History ===
+atul made a prototype XPI on 4/19/2010. See [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=552992#c1 bug 552992 comment 1] for more information on this.
 boriss wrote a [http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/herdict-and-its-tasty-anonymized-aggregated-data/ blog post] featuring her mock-ups on 1/4/2010.
@@ Line 13: / Line 33: @@
 == Next Steps ==
-* Labs will begin investigating creating a prototype extension based on boriss' mock-ups.
+* See [[Firefox/Projects/Herdict#Current_Status|Current Status]] section.
-** Jeffrey needs to provide atul with documentation on the Herdict API.
-* Labs will begin discussing how to deal with potential infrastructure challenges in supporting Herdict.
-** atul will contact the Weave team.
-** atul may blog about the technical challenges, as well as the possibility of making Herdict servers more distributed, by allowing community members to set up Herdict "nodes".
-** boriss will contact the Test Pilot team to discuss the possibility of tracking how often users encounter Firefox "404" pages, in order to get estimates on potential server load.
 == Related Bugs ==
-{{bug|1234567}} (This bug doesn't actually exist, it's just a template.)
+{{bug|552992}} -  Create an addon prototyping Herdict-Firefox integration
 == Team ==
@@ Line 43: / Line 58: @@
 == Related Blog Posts ==
+* [http://www.owlfolio.org/htmletc/ssl-errors/ Better SSL Error Screens] - Zachary Weinberg's take on how SSL certificate error screens can be made more helpful through the application of Herdict data. Feb 16, 2010.
+* [http://www.toolness.com/wp/?p=772 Herdict-Firefox Integration and Better HTML Presentations] - Atul's blog post announcing the Herdict pitch video. Feb 10, 2010.
 * [http://www.toolness.com/wp/?p=144 Herdict: The Verdict of the Herd] - Atul's blog post about Herdict from August 2008
@@ Line 50: / Line 69: @@
 == Other Materials ==
+* Atul's [https://secure.toolness.com/xpi/herdict.xpi prototype add-on] and its [http://hg.mozilla.org/users/avarma_mozilla.com/atul-packages/file/423e12b697b7/packages/herdict source code]
 * [[Media:Herdict_Plugin_API.pdf|Herdict Server API (PDF)]]
+* [http://labs.toolness.com/ff-herdict-preso/ Atul's Pitch]