Patterns are nouns. Typically, they are identifiable things, which emerge, or are created, to resolve a set of pressures or problems. They are typically GENERIC ... they have emerged before, although usually in a unique way, adapted for the particulars of a situation. And for our purposes, patterns are GOOD. (An anti-pattern (-) is BAD.) And patterns should be GOOD for the WHOLE system. The SCALE at which they should be applied as a solution should also be clear. It should be clear at which STAGE of development they should emerge. They should also just be RIGHT: i.e. a pattern should make sense both to your head and your heart.

Here you'll see me generally aiming at finding GRADIENTS of patterns, because, to me, patterns are most useful when collected into SEQUENCES.

Note that a blog certainly doesn't have the right kind of order for this work. What I have here is essentially "scratch paper", or "working papers", for patterns which themselves will eventually be presented as a gradient, in order. Of course, that kind of webapp is a pattern: "GRADIENT SEQUENCE".

Portal

It is important to collect and consolidate access to the web. There are, however, several ways to do this:

1. Search

This will continue to be a critically important tool for finding what you need among an ever growing set of data. I expect many changes in search, and many expansions of the notion in the future. For example, people should be able to weigh their search, to use specific analytical tools, to follow the propagation of information, etc.

2. Ontologies or hierarchies

As search has improved, these are less used as before, with the exception of the wiki. But this is an area for dynamic growth. Unfortunately, DMOZ (aka the Open Directory) seems very limited in its approach to ontology, mirroring Yahoo's rather narrow apporach to the problem.

3. Summaries

Essentially, a Portal is a collection of tools, data and links to further information. Most portals offer customization, so that a summary can reflect the user. They are missing the opportunity to provide this as a way of generating content for others ... summaries that are useful to others. Many speciality portals do exactly that ... they simply summarize the subject at the moment, and the work is often that of a single person. Wikis, again, are making inrads into this arena.

4. Newspapers

Many portals are also newspapers, with weighted headlines, taglines, bylines, photos & leads. While blogs have made inroads into the area of columnists, and even groups of columnists, they have yet to really encroach on the true consolidation of information that a newspaper provides. Many smaller web service providers create such automatic consolidation & layout tools. But the big companies have yet to do this, which is odd, since it is the natural extension of the blog phenomenon.

by Greg Bryant Saturday, January 08, 2005 3:55 PM

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