Re: [seul-edu] Resource Design Ideas

[Les Richardson <richl@mail.tfsd.sk.ca>]

Hi Doug,

> > Here's a rough outline of one approach:
> > 1) Data exchange will be based on RSS format.
> > 2) Authorized folks register their resource including Name, URL, update
> > times, etc. on a web based interface (protected)
> 
> What will constitute a resource?  A new software app listing?  A new case
> study?  A new link to an educational site?  All of the above and more?

The RSS 0.91 version has only triplets of data: title, link, and
description. The newer 0.92 adds a category element, a source element and
removes many of limitations. Thus we have essentially what Larry and I
have been talking about in terms of building web pages from a database. I
would favour the use of this richer format (not triplets...quads, quints)
but I'm not sure of toolset support. This shouldn't be a big issue. This
would allow us to categorize and aggregate these nodes as well as giving
credit for the source using the source element. (or add this on our end
after parsing but before storage.) 


However, is this format "rich enough"?

We could, of course, build something else but I'm not sure the other sites
could "feed" in that richer xml but non-RSS format... 

Now this is only "channeling", a more elegant solution to screen scraping.
IMHO, it does not replace either the Application Index or the Case
Studies. I would hope that those other groups would link to both the
application index and the case studies to foster aggregation. And of
course I can export RSS from both of these apps, when that becomes
appropriate. (hopefully rsn...) 

Les Richardson