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-------- Original Message --------
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Subject: </th>
<td>[emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop] Emacspeak WebSpace ---
Interaction-Fre...</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Resent-Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:26:00 -0500 (EST)</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Resent-From: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:emacspeak@cs.vassar.edu">emacspeak@cs.vassar.edu</a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:25:58 -0800 (PST)</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th>
<td>T. V. Raman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:tv.raman.tv@gmail.com"><tv.raman.tv@gmail.com></a></td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:emacspeak@cs.vassar.edu">emacspeak@cs.vassar.edu</a></td>
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<p>A few months ago, I started an Emacspeak module called
<code>emacspeak-webspace</code> that is now ready for wider use.
The goal of this module is to unobtrusively fetch useful
information from the Web and communicate it at those times that
one is context-switching among tasks.
I gave a talk on user interaction at the last <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.think.org">Hackers Conference</a> in
November; in the same session, there was another talk whose gist
was a plea for <em>less</em> human-computer interaction ---
motivation: User Interfaces are nice, but wouldn't it be nice if
one didn't have to <em>explicitly</em> interact with the machine
to get information?
The speaker coined the term <em>Zen interfaces</em> in that
context, something that stuck in memory long after the talk.
</p>
<p>I built that thought into module
<code>emacspeak-webspace</code>.
Conceptually, it consists of <em>smart fetchers</em> that fetch
information asynchronously from the Web, and <em>smart
displayers</em>
that communicate this information at <em>appropriate</em> times.
These are detailed below.
</p>
<h3>Fetchers</h3>
<p>There are two fetchers at present:</p>
<dl>
<dt>Weather</dt>
<dd>Fetches current weather conditions for your location.</dd>
<dt>News</dt>
<dd>Fetches headlines from a customizable collection of ATOM and
RSS feeds.</dd>
</dl>
<p>Note that this module is not intended to be an RSS or ATOM
feed-reader; for that, use module <code>greader</code> --- an
API-based Google Reader client that is bundled with
Emacspeak.</p>
<h3>Communicating Useful Information Usefully</h3>
<p>With the information in hand, the next question is how does one
communicate this information <em>usefully</em>, and what does <em>at
the appropriate time</em> mean? Things to
avoid:
</p>
<dl>
<dt>Interaction-Free</dt>
<dd>Do not require explicit user action to hear the
information.</dd>
<dt>Avoid Chatter</dt>
<dd>Avoid creating an auditory user interface that chatters at
the user all the time.</dd>
</dl>
<p>These are conflicting constraints. Notice that in a visual
interface, one can meet the <em>interaction-free</em>
requirement by displaying the information in a toolbar or
sidebar and allow the user to ignore or absorb the information at
will.</p>
<p>Emacspeak uses Emacs' <em>header-line</em> to display the
continuously updating information.
This meets the <em>interaction-free</em> requirement.
The header line updates every time Emacs updates its display, and
automatically speaking it would produce too much feedback.
But Emacspeak doesn't automatically speak the header-line; it
only speaks it when there is a <em>context-switch</em>.</p>
<h3>How To Use</h3>
<p>Here is how I am using <code>emacspeak-webspace</code> at
present:</p>
<dl>
<dt>Weather</dt>
<dd>Activate weather display in the <code>calendar</code> and
<code>scratch</code> buffers.</dd>
<dt>News</dt>
<dd>Activate feed headlines in selected <code>shell</code>
buffers.</dd>
</dl>
<p>You hear the updated information when switching to buffers
where the webspace display is active.
</p>
<h3>Activating WebSpace Displays</h3>
<p>Webspace displays are activated via the following commands;
all Webspace displays will be placed by default on prefix key
<code>hyper-space</code></p>
<ul>
<li><code>emacspeak-webspace-headlines</code>: <code>hyper-space
h</code></li>
<li><code>emacspeak-webspace-weather</code> <code>hyper-space
w</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Share And Enjoy, And May The Source Be With You!</p>
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--<br>
Posted By T. V. Raman to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://emacspeak.blogspot.com/2008/03/emacspeak-webspace-interaction-free.html">emacspeak
The Complete Audio Desktop</a> at 3/06/2008 07:25:00 AM
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