Chapter 7.
Conclusion

"Current software is a 'Tyrannosaurus Apps' which will become extinct and be replaced by small, modular, mobile mammals."
Jakob Nielsen,
SunSoft

A new paradigm changes the way we look at problems. It provides another framework for thinking about problems. A new paradigm changes what to consider important, it changes our priorities.

Dan Carlinsky, a writer who is vice president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors says:

"Magazine and newspaper publishers have never been in the business of selling content. Their business has been selling advertising. The articles and photographs and line art are the glue that holds the advertising together and the magnet that brings in the real customers, which are the advertisers. That's what the real thing is all about. Not too many publications make their money from circulation. In the past publishers have exercised little concern about secondary rights for articles by freelance writers simply because these rights held little economic value.

The electronic explosion has changed the entire nature of the business. In the past, articles sold to a periodical essentially turned into a pumpkin with no value once they were published. But the electronic revolution has extended the shelf life of content of periodicals. You can now take individual articles and put them into a virtual bookstore or put them on a virtual newsstand. Now, as more newspapers and publishers go online and add back issues and articles to databases linked to thousands of sites on the World Wide Web."

The explosive growth and popularity of the World Wide Web changed how information is valued. It blurs the distinction between reader and writer, and provides opportunity for anyone to be an author. This change affects the works of all writers, especially computer programmers. Whereas writers, and programmers, were compensated for the act of writing -- a new writing space now exists where the value of authorship is based on who accesses information, how many have access, and how often it is accessed. This represents an increase in both monetary and perceived value for all writers.

... see the Forest through the Trees

Like other disciplines rooted in research, Computer Science collects facts and displays them on the shelves of its knowledge.

VLSI

Recursion

Big "O"

TCP/IP

RPC

Like military leaders, we wear the complexity of our trade on our collective chests like metals won in battle.

MegaHertz

GigiByts

Random Access

GUI

PPC

And like sheep, we huddle around the gates of our knowledge and wait for the world to tell us what is important. After fifty years, the world is speaking. It has recognized that the Web is one implementation of a new Writing Space made possible by the technology of pervasive computer networks. Like pencil and paper, this Writing Space is a many to many technology. In this hyperlinked and document based environment, readers write new documents as they read.

Visicalc was a computer/user interface (CUI) for stand-alone computers. It gave individuals unprecedented information access, and popularized PCs. Visicalc was proof of the importance of the CUI. The popularity of Internet shows us that communications is at least as important as information access. J. C. R. Licklider says communicating is "... getting into position to think."

Web servers and browsers serve as a prototype for Ubiquitous Software (U_S). The popularity of Internet exploded when Mosaic put a graphic interface on the Web. Like Visicalc, Web browsers are evidence of the importance of a network/user interface (NUI).

U_S is technology for building NUIs. Pencil and paper builds the writing space of books. U_S builds a new writing space where reader is writer, where user is programmer. NUIs built with U_S allow domain experts to be software engineers.

I agree with Sun Microsystems ... "The network is the computer." This thesis states that the tools needed to build U_S are available (Chapter 3), that a working prototype exists (Chapter 2), inexpensive architecture is coming (Chapter 4), world wide demand is proven (Chapter 5), and everyone (computer users and professionals, readers and writers) benefits (Chapter 6).

Hanafy Meleis(1) proposes a challeng to software engineers:

"By developing systems that integrate all the essential functions of an information network, the information industry can be the catalyst of the next-generation infrastructure for commerce, communication, and entertainment. I believe a paradigm shift in user experience is imminent. As users move from the need to connect to a network, they will soon be offered a service that transparently uses the information network. This paradigm shift will bring with it a wave of innovation that will further extend the capabilities of the network, creating new businesses and business systems that will drive global economic growth during the next century."

A paradigm shift has occured. U_S changes Software Engineering from designing and programming for computers to designing and programming for networks. This is naturally document-centric and architecture-neutral.

Ubiquitous Software is a new Information Network paradigm. Build it, and they will come.

Existing Technologies and Prototypes

1. New Writing Space: hypertext principals date back 50 years and were demonstrated using computers 30 years ago. The Web makes it real.

2. Information Networks: as previously noted, many missing parts.

3. Document Centric Software: OpenDoc is under development. OLE (aka Active X) is not a document technology because it does not hide underlining applications from users, nor does it provide for recording of user actions. None currently are architecture independent or interoperable.

4. Web is an excellent prototype of networked hypertext, and demonstrates the importance of HD. Its interface is document-like and demonstrates the effects that document centric design has on CUI.

5. Java and Java O/S is the first architecture neutral development environment, and Java applets used in Web documents begin to demonstrate the possibility of U_S. "Develop once, deploy anywhere."

6. JavaBeans is a set of APIs with the goal to define a software component model for Java, so that third party ISVs can create and ship Java components that can be composed together into applications by end users.

7. Drag-and-drop HTML authoring tools show the potential for and the importance of generic tools for authoring and presenting HD. This is one requirement for the acceptance of Information Networks. Authoring an information network document is programming; domain experts must feel comfortable doing this, otherwise we fail.

8. Companies like Yahoo, Lycos, and AltaVista show the way towards brokers that can organize and validate information and software components. It will be necessary for these brokers to specialize, for example "Education Brokerages."

Benefits of Information Networks with U_S

1. Marketing and distribution without current infrastructure, $0 CGS, --> more developers. see link

2. New (more), less expensive, easier to use computer devices --> more customers.

3. Reusable component software at every level of development cycle, even at end user level.

4. Larger development costs, allocated over much larger market combine to produce less costly products.

5. Pay-per-use and pay-one-price markets (i.e. telephone) managed by responsible brokerages.

6. Architecture neutral development models allow legacy systems to be integrated into an Information Network Paradigm minimizing conversion costs.

What is needed for U_S to succeed?

1. An entirely new market infrastructure to address issues of component packaging, specifications, distribution, certification, pricing, and support.
Proposal: "Brokerages" specialized content providers

2. Software developers need to undertake Document Centric model ... an environment that builds components that work with, not against, those of your competitor's ... where end users, not developers, decide feature lists and build complete applications (in part, these are the new Writing Space documents).
Proposal: Lots of new developers

3. Content providers willing to contribute and maybe profit by publishing their efforts so others may reuse their information (see Writing Space documents above).
Proposal: I think that almost everyone will want to!