Talk at KMI on roadmap for multi-device web applications and relationship to education

1. Widgets and Mashups for Personal and
Institutional Technologies
Scott Wilson
University of Bolton, UK

2. Scott Wilson
• Researcher at the Institute for Educational
Cybernetics at the University of Bolton
• Assistant Director of Centre for Educational
Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS)
• Member of the W3C Web Applications Working
Group, contributes to the W3C Widgets family of
specifications
• Committer on the Apache (incubating) project
Wookie which implements the specifications
• Currently Scott works on two EU-funded projects,
OMELETTE and iTEC, both of which are using W3C
widget technologies to create flexible mashups

3. Widgets and Mashups for
Personal and Institutional
Technologies

4. Suddenly,
lots of devices

5. Not just devices, either, gizmos
A Gizmo, unlike a Machine or a Product, is not efficient. A Gizmo has bizarre,
baroque, and even crazy amounts of functionality … It's a cellphone, a web
browser, an SMS platform, an MMS platform, a really bad camera, and an
abysmal typewriter, plus a notepad, a sketchpad, a calendar, a diary, a clock, a
music player, and an education system with its own onboard tutorial that nobody
ever reads. Plus I can plug extra, even more complicated stuff into it, if I take
a notion. It's not a Machine or a Product, because it's not a stand-alone device. It
is a platform, a playground for other developers. It's a dessert topping, and
it's a floor wax.
- Bruce Sterling

6. Personal Technology In The Age of
Gizmos
• Everything is internet-connected, has a browser, a GPS,
accelerometer, compass, multi-touch screen,
whatever…
• But for display can have anything from a 320x240 pixel
feature-phone screen to a 50” plasma screen
• And it can run Apple IOS, Android, Bada, WebOS,
Windows, Nintendo, Google TV, YouView, QT,
Blackberry OS, Linux…

7. Complexity
all these devices, operating systems and feature sets is
an amazing opportunity for
innovation…
… and a huge headache for
anyone involved in IT for
Institutions

8. Web on Everything
• W3C Standardising core aspects of the open web
platform
– Widgets
– Device APIs
– HTML5
– Device Independence and Content Adaptation
– Multimodal Access
– Web TV

9. W3C Widgets
HTML
config.xml
JavaScript
CSS Icon.png
mywidget.wgt

10. W3C Widget Applications
Desktop Widgets Website Gadgets Mobile Apps
Installable Web Apps TV Apps Car Apps
Console Apps Browser Extensions Portlets

11. “W3C Widgets are better than websites
because they download only the data;
and not the core files.”
“Widgets are better than app systems
because you don't have to write 4, 5, or
10 of them. Just the one is enough.”
“And hundreds of thousands of web
developers already know how to create
widgets.It's just HTML/CSS/JavaScript,
after all.”
- Peter Paul Koch

12. Device APIs: Adding Device
Capabilities to the Web
• Contacts • Network Information
• Calendar (roaming…)
• Battery status • Systems info (CPU…)
• Media Capture (mic, • Permissions
camera…) • Gallery
• Messaging (SMS, • Launcher
MMS…) • Tasks
• Privacy
JavaScript

13. Device APIs
JavaScript HTML
navigator.device <input
.capture.capture type="file"
Image(success, accept="image/*
error, { limit: " id="capture">
1 });

14. Open Web Application Stacks
• WAC: Widgets + DAP + Mobile = mobile open web
applications
• CME: Widgets + Media = enhanced music content
• Web TV: Widgets + DAP + TV = open TV web applications
• Opera: Widgets + Extensions = browser extensions
• Omelette: Widgets + Telco APIs = telco mashups

15. Why is all of this interesting?
• Simple, embeddable, personalized, contextual…
• Scenarios:
– Cross-device applications
– Multi-device applications
– VLE -> MUPPLE

16. Cross-Device Apps

17. Multi-Device
Planning
and monitoring
Field
Data
Capture
Reading and reviewing Writing

18. VLE - MUPPLE

19. The Social Life of Widgets
• Widgets living with other Widgets
• Widgets talking to other Widgets
• People talking about Widgets
• Institutions giving people Widgets
• People giving each other Widgets

20. Widgets Living
With Other
Widgets

21. Widgets Talking
To Widgets
(*potentially. These sites don’t use them, but are
examples of what you might do)

22. People Talking About Widgets
Top 5 apps that help
you find more and
better apps

23. Institutions Giving People Widgets

24. People Giving Each Other Widgets
Flatpack

25. The Road Ahead

26. Now and next
• DAP WG commodifying today’s device capabilities
• HTML5 everywhere
• Inter-widget mashups still experimental
• Widgets standardised across more platforms
• Platform wars: native vs web
• “Appification” of existing platforms: whiteboards, TV
• VLEs with an app
• BasicLTI and widgets
• Widgets for core institutional (admin) services
• Cross-device applications using adaptation techniques
• Bump-sharing apps between mobiles

27. 2-5 Years
• More device form factors, but all fundamentally based
on web technologies
• New hardware capabilities for devices exposed to web
applications then commodified by W3C
• VLEs made of widgets; mashups of widgets a common
way to build applications
• Multi-device applications exposing fundamentally
different collaborating capabilities (e.g. “second screen”
technology)
• Social App Sharing - by twitter, email, buttons…
• Federated social web?

28. Challenges and Opportunities
• From VLE to PLE … or from PLE to VLE?
• Widgets as social objects - sharing, discovering, co-
creating
• Widgets talking to platforms
• Balancing act between adopting standards for the long
term, and delivering functionality now
• Designing for “any device”
• Making personal mash-up building easy, fun and
worthwhile

29. Thanks
scottbw@apache.org
scott.bradley.wilson@gmail.com
@scottbw
http://scottbw.wordpress.com