One Web Two Systems

There is certainly an analogy here to the advent of personal computing in mid 1980s.

What if IBM, the champion of computing, had not opened a personal computer division alongside its core mainframe business? How long would it have taken before the mainstream got to document their work using a computer? Today, how many more years will it be before ordinary people get to use the Web to mechanise their work processes?

Do forum/W3C staff members disagree with any of the following statements about mechanisation, and if so, why?

Currently online processes are restricted to website owners.

Online banking demonstrates that a web page can be set up as a control panel for services previously provided by a physical teller. Web energy, for want of a better term, automates selections. This energy is only available to owners who have redesigned their processes so that their web site developers can energise them.

A web operating system can support diverse online processes.

Another way to organise the Web is to provide a web operating system for anyone, just as pioneers did for personal computing. At its core a public web page is used as a template control panel. Individuals open it to load their own file or register a new one. At session end, the  web page variables set by the owner are automatically converted to a specially punctuated but easy to read text file which can be stored in a location of choice.

Processes can be structured to match code that automates them.

Anyone can simply use the panel to break down any process into namesets that identify what needs to be worked on. Each has a name and a set of key/value couplets that require their values defined (the work). As each nameset acquires a unique identity, new namesets can be added to an existing nameset’s “Link” couplet. The name at the top of a nameset hierarchy represents the whole process.

Web pages can be made to work as machines.

Sliding panels overcome the diversity of names and couplets. On selection,  names and values slide into focus, names unlock related sets of values, values reveal action options, options call external code modules and a sliding trail tracks past selections for fast navigation.

A web operating system can support online collaboration.

Unlike applications based on paperwork owners can collaborate by directly coupling their nameset files via complementary key/value couplets. Access to nameset files can be arranged privately, or via a new type of search if namesets to be shared publicly are embedded in websites and tagged with grouping identities.

A web operating system can link in multimedia output options.
Visualization libraries  can use nameset couplets to output bilaterally linked multimedia displays, such as animated 3D objects, to explain, instruct and monitor. For backward compatibility  traditional documents, drawings and diagrams can also be output and files and filing systems converted to private or shared namesets.

Finally, W3C, champion of the Web, should branch out of its comfort zone and develop interoperable technologies to support mechanisation as well as websites.