JSON machine

chrisglasier · January 23, 2016, 6:46am

New to Mozilla I want to find out whether I can pass on the design of this machine here.

I put up the rationale for it in the main section as a response to Lucy Harris’s Narrative 2016 post .

Basically names of keys and values in JSON strings are parsed and made hypertext to call a universal function; these links are listed in animated divs which form the body of an HTML5 web page or machine as I like to think of it. I put it in an NWJS window on my desktop to read and write local json files and keep the display minimalistic.

I managed to pick up enough coding to make it work but I know it should be rebuilt from scratch. I don’t think it very difficult for real coders but my experience tells me it needs to be developed step by step to ensure performance requirements are being met.

Of course I will be happy to answer any questions. Please advise if I’m out of line, it is not the right place or, hopefully, how best to proceed.

CaptainCalliope · January 23, 2016, 7:16pm

I do think this is the wrong area for this. The Participation Software Lab, and Participation in general is less about tech and more about organizational capacity and volunteer engagement. I’m not sure where your thoughts might find a place to take root. Maybe with people working on developer tools? I’m not quite sure how to direct you at the moment. Maybe someone else might chime in?

chrisglasier · January 25, 2016, 6:33am

The Participation Software Lab, and Participation in general is less about tech and more about organizational capacity and volunteer engagement.

The words attracted me here. However, I can see the scope of participation I have in mind is more related to the general public and the lab to software to provide the means. Perhaps bureaucracy can bow to expediency in this case. However, I am happy to accept redirection; I ask only that you first hear me out.

I think it worth repeating my comment on Mark Surman’s blog previously quoted:

Automation of tasks involving analysis of multiple web sources is in its infancy, basically restricted to best deals for travellers looking for hotels, flights and so on, but it demonstrates the potential for automation of mainstream routine tasks. The key is to provide ordinary people with the means to define what should be analysed to help meet their own different objectives – more complex and diverse than the best deals of course but still manageable if properly organised.

However many people and ideas are involved in the creation of a web site, the result is an assembly of selected, elaborated and positioned digital objects. The same could be true when defining what is to be analysed except each digital object represents a presence in the real world. Once created different people can attach or amend different aspects - position, size, colour, cost, status, etc. - much as developers do with attributes, CSS and JavaScript.

But individuals do not need developer skills to participate in this development of the Web; they first need a machine to create, use and store their objects and then the organisation of the Web to share them in a new mechanised way of working.

CaptainCalliope · January 25, 2016, 7:54pm

I understand your desire for expediency, and I think your vision certainly relevant to the long-term goals of this initiative… but bureaucracy unfortunately wins here in the sense that there isn’t any bureaucracy that would enable getting resources for such a project in the near-term. I have a related vision involving making APIs accessible to the masses that I’ve come to realize will take a few years to get off the ground. My reason for being part of this initiative is to create space where more ambitious ideas have a chance to show their merit rather than stay in idea-land. Mozilla wants to be that organization that enables more ambitious work at the periphery of the org, but we’re still trying to figure out how to do it.

I like your ideas. It reminds me a bit of some of the early ideas around Webmaker which is an effort to close the web literacy gap.

One piece of advice that does help in engaging the organization: showing is much more effective than telling. Having a sense of architecture and data models is good if you can get resources to test them, but for the embryonic stage it helps to have a demo of some kind, even if it’s just mockups! Mockups will take you a long way in opening the door for greater discussion, validating ideas, and getting support. This applies in most places across Mozilla as much of the organization tends to be very UX-driven.

Btw, have you explored the Project VRM community at all?

chrisglasier · October 24, 2019, 2:08pm

About showing is much more effective than telling …

Here are the screenshots I posted in the Participation section.

Here is the latest of the videos I have been making over the last 7 years.

And there is also the code, like

//MAKES & POPULATES vertical sliders
function coreSlider(trail,name,tame,nr,i,val,left,width){
	var w,ww,ms,msd,nv,node,link,hname,ns,xsts,add,head,ind,device;
	var cm,cw;
//LINKS
//nold 
	ww = win[nset[config.coupled].win].window;
	if(name === "nold"){
		set = val.charAt(0) === "o"? nset : ww.nset;
		if(set[val] && set[val].Director === "Coupler"){
			link = ww.nset.Link;
		}
		else{
			nv = set[val];
			if(nv.Link){
				link = nv.Link;
			}
		}
	}
//mold
	if(name === "mold"){
		set = val.charAt(0) === "o"? nset : ww.nset;
		nv = set[val]; ...

but I would like to control its release to suit the development as I mentioned before.

About still trying to figure out how to do it …

Since you tell me:

My reason for being part of this initiative is to create space where more ambitious ideas have a chance to show their merit rather than stay in idea-land,

I think your vision certainly relevant to the long-term goals of this initiative,

I like your ideas,

and

Mozilla wants to be that organization that enables more ambitious work at the periphery of the org,

can we discuss how to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to achieve what appears to be a mutual objective?

chrisglasier · March 9, 2016, 12:39am