d.construct: Full of questions
Posted in Tech/Development on: Wednesday, September 6, 2006 by Paul Boag
This will probably be my last chance to post before I am off to d.construct. I have a manic day tomorrow trying to get everything sorted before I go, however I wanted to share with you a couple of thoughts about the upcoming conference.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes. I had not really taken the time to look at what d.construct was covering this year. I enjoyed it tremendously last year and was confident that the guys at Clear:Left would pull together a great line up again.
What little I know on the subject leaves me with some doubts about their usefulness to the average website owners
It therefore came as a pleasant surprise to discover that the primarily focus was on web services and APIs. This was especially good, as I had just decided to address the issue on the boagworld.com podcast.
I have felt for a while that web services and APIs were something that I should address on the podcast but to be frank I don’t know much about them, so felt inadequate to speak on the subject. I had decided to ask Dustin Diaz on the show to give me his take on them but we were having trouble arranging a time (although I still hope to get him on soon!). You can therefore imagine my relief when I discovered d.construct would be covering the same area.
Questions and concerns
In my experience, clients do not like being reliant on third parties for their site to operate successfully.
must confess, I have loads of questions that I am hoping will be answered. What little I know on the subject leaves me with some doubts about their usefulness to the average website owners. I can see the use for an enthusiastic bloggers who wants to sell amazon books or show their flickr photos. However, what do APIs offer large corporations or public institutions?
Even if a web service does appear useful, this in turn throws up a load of additional questions. For example, what if Google decides to discontinue its mapping service and your site is dependent on it? What if your site pulls in RSS feeds from Feedburner and their server goes down? In my experience, clients do not like being reliant on third parties for their site to operate successfully.
As you can see, I have all kinds of questions. As with so many of these emerging technologies I am left wondering how it will benefit my clients. I am happy to admit that I am blissfully ignorant in this area and my hope is that d.construct will show me the light.
I’ll tell you what I learn in next weeks show.
Say hello
If you are going to d.construct then please come over and say hello. I am always keen to chat with people that read this blog or listen to the podcast. That way I am not standing in the corner looking like billy no mates!
