rc3.org
92 karma · joined August 25, 2007
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/...
The Gates Foundation work is and will likely continue to be disastrous for public education in the U.S. It is simply an attempt to push education into the private sector.
Basic Web architecture: 1. expose resources, 2. resources have names (URL), 3. allow basic actions on these (GET, DELETE , PUT, POST ) as needed. 4. Include URLs (as links/forms) in representations.
OK, now build your API . Please do NOT start w/the API and work back to basic web architecture. Servers should always provide URLs (url templates are fine), NOT the client (by way of snowflakey construction algorithm).
"But the world would be a better place if more engineers, like me, hated technology. The stuff I design, if I'm successful, nobody will ever notice. Things will just work, and be self-managing. Though, I've learned that some people like to configure things, so I usually design in knobs for them to play with, and perhaps improve things, but any setting of the knobs will still work correctly.
When engineers [who] just love this stuff design something, we wind up with a system that asks an innocent person attempting to install email, "Do you want POP or IMAP?" One common comment engineers make is that we need "more user training". That's just wrong. Instead of expecting humans to adapt to an interface slapped together by engineers, engineers should strive to create a system that is designed for humans in their natural form. "
For me, nothing else comes close :-)