Wednesday, November 12, 2008

I'd like to be able to explain the important confluence of several ad-hoc Web standards to various people, so I paid attention Monday at IIW. This is the diagram I saw:



I can't call this a stack. I just can't. It's not a protocol stack or an API stack or a library stack. The best I can say is that "Some people call it a stack". There's no layering relationship between these things; there's not even a sequence or an order.

PortableContacts extends Open Social and the rest are independent proposals that work well together. It's a suite, a cluster or a collection of protocols/APIs. Here's a first stab at a moderately simple diagram that does not mislead:

Comments?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Not bad! I like that it's non-linear, though it does suggest a hierarchy with the larger dots at the bottom and the thick connecting rod between them. I think it's in the arrows and line weights that you try to explain with too many, tricky-to-decipher, symbolic meanings. A simpler 'quick read' execution might help it catch on. If you give me more insight into the meaning of the arrows and connections, I would be happy to taking a pass at polishing your graphic.
Michael Rowley

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