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diff --git a/root/articles/mmmfs/problem-statement/text$markdown.md b/root/articles/mmmfs/problem-statement/text$markdown.md index d992e6e..78dbd76 100644 --- a/root/articles/mmmfs/problem-statement/text$markdown.md +++ b/root/articles/mmmfs/problem-statement/text$markdown.md @@ -1,6 +1,58 @@ # motivation +The application-centric computing paradigm common today is harmful to users, +because it leaves behind "intert" data as D. Cragg calls it: + +[Cragg 2016] +D. Cragg coins the term "inert data" for the data created, and left behind, by apps and applications in the computing model that is currently prevalent: +Most data today is either intrinsically linked to one specific application, that controls and limits access to the actual information, +or even worse, stored in the cloud where users have no direct access at all and depend soley on online tools that require a stable network connection +and a modern browser, and that could be modified, removed or otherwise negatively impacted at any moment. + +This issue is worsened by the fact that the a lot of software we use today is deployed through the cloud computing and SaaS paradigms, +which are far less reliable than earlier means of distributing software: +Software that runs in the cloud is subject to outages due to network problems, +pricing or availability changes etc. at the whim of the company providing it, as well as ISPs involved in the distribution. +Cloud software, as well as subscription-model software with online-verification mechanisms are additionally subject +to license changes, updates modifiying, restricting or simply removing past functionality etc. +Additionally, many cloud software solutions and ecosystems store the users' data in the cloud, +where they are subject to foreign laws and privacy concerns are intransparently handled by the companies. +Should the company, for any reason, be unable or unwanting to continue servicing a customer, +the data may be irrecoverably lost (or access prevented). + +However this lack of control over data access is not the only problem the application-centric approach induces: +Another consequence is that interoperability between applications and data formats is hindered. +Because applications are incentivised to keep customers, they make use of network effects to keep customers locked-in. +As a result applications tend to accrete features rather then modularise and delegate to other software [P Chiusano]. + +This leads to massively complex file formats, +such as for example the .docx format commonly used for storing mostly +textual data enriched with images and videos on occasion. +The docx format is in fact an archive that can contain many virtual files internally, +such as the images and videos referenced before. +However this is completely unknown to the operating system, +and so users are unable to access the contents in this way. +As a result, editing an image contained in a word document is far from a trivial task: +first the document has to be opened in a word processing application, +then the image has to be exported from it and saved in its own, temporary file. +This file can then be edited and saved back to disk. +Once updated, the image may be reimported into the .docx document. +If the word-processing application supports this, +the old image may be replaced directly, otherwise the user may have to remove the old image, +insert the new one and carefully ensure that the positioning in the document remains intact. + +In fact all of this is unnecessary, since the image had been stored in a compatible format on disk in the first place: +The system was simply unaware of this because the word document had to be archived into a single file +for ease of use by the word processor, and this single file is opaque to the system. + +Data rarely really fits the metaphora of files very well, +and even when it does it is rarely exposed to the user that way: +The 'Contacts' app on a mobile phone or laptop for example does not store each contacts's information +in a separate 'file' (as the metaphora may have initially suggested), +but rather keeps this database hidden away from the user. +Consequently, access to the information contained in the database is only enabled through the contacts applications GUI. + +-- -The state of sof According to some researchers in the field of Human-Computer-Interaction, the state of computing is rather dire. It seems that a huge majority of daily computer users have silently accepted @@ -11,12 +63,6 @@ and surrendered it to the relatively small group of 'programmers' curating their - Services are worse -[Cragg 2016] -D. Cragg coins the term "inert data" for the data created, and left behind, by apps and applications in the computing model that is currently prevalent: -Most data today is either intrinsically linked to one specific application, that controls and limits access to the actual information, -or even worse, stored in the cloud where users have no direct access at all and depend soley on online tools that require a stable network connection -and a modern browser, and that could be modified, removed or otherwise negatively impacted at any moment. - Chiusano blames these issues on the metaphor of the *machine*, and likens apps and applications to appliances. According to him, what should really be provided are *tools*: composable pieces of software that naturally lend themselves to, or outrightly call for, |