Re: [uk-netmarketing] RE: The Rules

[Silas Denyer]

From: "Dan Winchester" <

danfreelancers [dot] net

>



> > All this criticism could be (and is!) equally levelled

> > at other technologies

>

> That doesn't make it (the criticism) wrong!


No question about that. However I personally think that narrow debates about

the accessibility / indexability / etc. rights and wrongs of individual

approaches / technologies doesn't ever really advance the debate. If we are

to make any real headway we need a top-down rather than a bottom-up

approach, i.e. reach agreement on what is good / bad, then worry about the

supporting technology for what it is - intended to support an end, not

become an end in itself!


> > application server

>

> I'm not sure exactly what that is.


Sorry, short hand. A common "n" tier architecture (where n>=3) has a web

server (e.g. apache) on the front end, an application server in the middle

to process bits of Java, JSPs, templates, etc. into html ready for serving

(e.g. IBM WebSphere), and a database at the back end to hold content, data,

and so on. In this model the "real time" content management system might

commonly be built in Java & operate within this architecture, i.e. run on

the application server.


Note that this isn't necessarily very efficient (!) - for a counterpoint

lambasting multi-tier architectures & advocating a very simple approach to

building & serving web sites see Philip Greenspun of MIT's excellent - if

controversial - piece "Scalability, Three-Tiered Architectures, and

Application Servers" at http://www.arsdigita.com/asj/application-servers.


> Incidently, I've heard rumours of one *big* company rolling out one of the

> content management systems, and giving up half way through, specifically

> because it couldn't cope with the basics:

>

> > * spidered

> > * emailed

> > * linked to

> > * referenced

> > * logged


I can well imagine this, yet I suspect the march of these technologies (or

others quite like them) will be inexorable if internet web sites are truly

going ot become the "view from the web" of complex businesses, functioning

in parallel with services delivering "the view from the WAP browser", "the

view from the 'phone [sic]", "the view from the high street", etc.


Regards


Silas Denyer

Director, Turns Ltd

e.

silas [dot] denyerturns [dot] net

t. 07956 661902