Hi Dennis,

Yes, the http://stigmergicsystems.com site is a product of this
strategy. It may not look much from a professional Web designer's
point of view, but simplicity is of the essence here.

I know most of you design Web sites for clients, so you have to cater
for simple minds where appearance is a major consideration. In
practice, elaborate design can be a hindrance to getting a site to
work efficiently (i.e., it adds additional variables that confuse the
issue when you are trying to work out how a site is performing).

The way the system works is to make use of Web log analysis
techniques. You can see where people are going on a site and put in
little features to see where their interests are. As soon as you get
results you can re-configure the site accordingly.

This is a continuous process, where the aim is to gradually (small
steps at a time) get a site to function efficiently for a given
purpose. All the eye -candy and clever tricks can be quickly applied
once you have got these basics right (that's when you can bring in
Dreamweaver).

peter

>Peter
>Thanks for this post -- a very intriguing topic.
>Are you constructing a site based on this thinking?
>Dennis
>
>Peter Small wrote:
>
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>> I've sort of been off the planet for the last year working on this
>> biological programming stuff. It sounds crazy but once you get into
>> it, it makes a great deal of sense.
>>
>> I started out developing my Web site using Dreamweaver but the
>> metaphors kept getting in the way. What I wanted to do was to create
>> a Web site that evolves. This means making radical changes all the
>> time. Templates seemed a good idea but proved to be too cumbersome.
>>
>> What I eventually finished up doing was to go back to Hypercard. It
>> is criminal that Apple didn't continue with this. You can treat
>> stacks like chromosomes and cards like genes. Voila, you've got an
>> organic system that can construct Web sites out of a multitude of
>> different components. Bits of javascript, bits of CSS, bits of HTML.
>> At the click of a button it pieces them all together to create a Web
>> site (much like Dreamweaver, except it incorporates all kinds of
>> utility tools to reconfigure and tweak the system). The focus is not
>> on building a Web site, but on building a program that can build a
>> Web site.
>>
>> What has really got me excited though is getting into complexity
>> theory and chaos. It sounds really geeky, but the fact is that it
>> give you a whole new slant on thinking about systems, particularly
>> systems that involve people. This is important, because it's no good
>> creating complex Web sites if you cannot attract visitors. This
>> complexity theory stuff gives some great insights for this.
>>
>> peter
>> http://www.stigmergicsystems.com
>>
>> >Jeeze, Peter, I thought you had fallen off of the face of the planet.
>> >Let me guess, you had something to do with this.
>> >
>> >Guys, Peter Small has been experimenting with dynamic data and other web
>> >interface concepts well before DW was in beta 1. Those two books in his
>> >sig are absolute classics.
>> >
>> >____________________________________________
>> >Co-Author, Building Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX
>> >
>> >
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >From: dreamweaver@lists.blueworld.com
>> >[mailto:dreamweaver@lists.blueworld.com] On Behalf Of Peter Small
>> >Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 10:01 AM
>> >To: dreamweaver@lists.blueworld.com
>> >Subject: A box full of experts
>> >
>> >
>> >Here's something that might amuse you. What do you think of the idea
>> >of a whole bunch of experts in a box and people can ask this box
>> >questions?
>> >
>> >Does it sound crazy?
>> >
>> >Then visit this box:
> > >http://www.stigmergicsystems.com/stig_v1/kempelenbox/
> > >
> > >
> > >Peter Small
> > >Author of Lingo Sorcery and Magical A-Life Avatars
> > >
> > >--
> > >
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>--
>Dennis Plum
>
>
>
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