theSky is a "virtual platform" we at skyBuilders.com see emerging in 21st-century computing. Unlike familiar platforms - computer hardware and an operating system - theSky is an artificial space created by the way we use today's nearly ubiquitous Internet connectivity between computers. This space is built on top of standard Internet, World Wide Web, and database protocols like TCP/IP, HTTP, ODBC, and SQL. skyBuilders applications, including timeLines, run in this shared space, on most any browser and web server, and on all major relational database systems.
"If it's not on the web, it doesn't exist," Tim Berners-Lee.
Most of the world's information is being put on the Web somewhere. This suggests a new model of computing in the post-PC age. A PC (or Mac or Linux box) with a browser becomes an intelligent terminal running client software, with another PC as a web server that belongs to an organization or community. On or near the web server is a master database server and file server that is the shared space of a "CC" or "community computer." The community may be anything from an association of individuals with a common interest to a corporation, for profit or non-profit.
skyBuilders.com is writing an API (applications programming interface) for developers who want to write programs to run in theSky virtual platform. It defines the characteristics needed in a serverPage to cleanly move data structures and client-side code to the browser, and needed to allow automatic code conversion between web application server languages.
skyBuilders.com open-source client-side webWare is HTML and Javascript (the engine behind Dynamic HTML) that runs in builderPages and builtPages. skyBuilders serverPages are web application software, also open source and available in the major languages of popular web application servers like Microsoft IIS, Netscape Enterprise, and Apache, including Java, Javascript, Perl, PHP, and VBScript. The challenge is to build a new user interface and a number of community applications providing a wide variety of services that access an organization's database securely, and with personalized permissions.
skyBuilders webWare depends on the power of client-side languages like Javascript. In the past, Javascript was prone to browser errors, and novice programmers could crash the browsers and even freeze the user's system software. Experienced programmers can eliminate these errors in modern browsers (Netscape Navigator 4 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and above).
Our skyWare also relies on the great power of today's relational database management systems (RDBMS). A proposed industry-standard open database model (ODBM) gives small enterprises the benefit of clean logical data models that big companies have paid millions of dollars for.
skyBuilders has designed a calendar-driven user interface ("timeLines") that standardizes navigation tools across a wide range of web applications.
Our initial web applications (modules) will be Web publishing of scheduled Pages with version archiving (content management), Forms (an HTML data entry generator for quizzes, questionnaires, poll, surveys, etc.), and Presentations (individually timed Pages with VCR-style controls), Events scheduling, resource management through Reservations , Tasks and Project management, Calendars (National, Religious, Industry, Organizational, and Personal), Accounting (double-entry bookkeeping), E-commerce (online transactions integrated with accounting), web-based Personal Information Management, and web-based Files sharing (word documents, spreadsheets, MP3 files, etc.). Our open standard data model (ODBM) includes robust and flexible user profiles, with multiple permission levels keyed to the individual application modules. For more information on ODBM go to www.opendatabasemodel.com. Future applications include timeLined web-based streaming media management, web-based spreadsheets, and web-based data views and data entry into an ODBC/SQL database.
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