Seamless Lessons & Security (commentary)

[Michael Stone]

On Fri, Jul 04, 2008 at 07:20:39PM +0545, Bryan Berry wrote:
> We need a way to seamlessly integrate supporting materials such as
> readings, lesson plans, together with activities. HTML is the way to do
> this and the browser is what we use to display html. URI's are what we
> use to link to different resources.

A few brief thoughts:

* a _general_ seamless 'launch activities by clicking URLs' facility is
  wholly incompatible with Bitfrost in the presence of highly privileged
  activities like our 'execution evironments': EToys, Pippy, etc. 

* _specialized_ seamless launch facilities can already be built on top
  of fixed data, e.g. by adapting the Browse codebase into new (fixed)
  Lesson-specific codebases.

* a _general_ "seamful" 'launch activities with operator-chosen 
  permissions' facility is highly desirable and should be pursued.

Questions?

Michael & Ivan