(re: re: re: re: If it were me…) “I think that answers any questions I had. I can understand where you’re coming from.
I’m looking forward to seeing how revolutionary your web site development idea can be. Since you mentioned doing research, what have you found in any research you have done about other companies with products like this? I’m curious as to your take on products such as
Link: PHP-Nuke(http://phpnuke.org/)
.
– Mike Belisle”
Thanks for the link to php-nuke. It seems like a cool project, and one worth studying. I love all the stuff in this category. I’ve always been a fan of anything that brings people from around the world together.
As to how revolutionary my code will be: that’s an interesting question. I’m kind of curious myself. My primary focus on “revolution” is on the simplicity side. Sierra fans are not representative of the rest of the world. Sierra fans are smart, aggressive, inquisitve, ultra-computer literate – and, persistent. Normal people aren’t bad – but they don’t have the computer literacy that the readers of this board have.
Remember TSN? The revolution I reached for with TSN was to open online gaming to senior citizens. This is forgotten now, but the first 100 users of TSN were in their 70’s and 80’s, and had never used a computer. I’m VERY passionate about computers. Opening their use to a new class of people excites me.
My goal for this code is to open website creation to people, and groups, that would never dream of doing such a thing. Currently, only about 1 millionth of 1% of the world has ever built a website. I personally think it would be cool if everyone could. And, I mean a REAL website – not just a couple of static webpages. Websites are communities without geographic boundaries.
If my long-term goal is simplicity, “why is this site so confusing to use?”, you might ask. I would respond that it isn’t finished yet. I see this as a 20 year project, not a 90 day project. That said, there are already some things I like a lot. Building a new website, with a unique URL, with user authentication, multi-level security, file upload/download, photo galleries, etc – takes about 15 seconds. The resulting website is VERY configurable by the person who created it – and, very dynamic. Putting up a departmental intranet is no big deal. Putting up a website for your church group is easy. Cub scout troops with their own websites – easy.
I will know if I’ve succeeded or not with this code, and if I’ve done anything revolutionary or not, when if a year or two from now there are groups that would NEVER before have considered doing their own website – who build them regularly.
Make sense?
-Ken W
