June is the month of meetings and i seem to have been in meetinsg for ever. Just a short few hours break before the next ones start so time for a quick bog entry.

This morning I received an email from Effie Law from the University of Leicester, UK/ ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

“Dear Graham,” she said, “I am now working … to develop an evaluation framework on widgets. In the meantime, we have identified several conceptual issues that your rich expertise and experience in widgets can help us resolve them.

May we ask you to kindly complete the following mini-survey for us.”

I love a flattering email as much as anyone else but I am afraid Effie seriously over rates my expertise. But she did conclude her email by saying “Please forward this message to those whom you think should respond to this survey as well”. So I am forwarding it to you, my blogreaders, in ther hope some of you can shine light on the questions Effie asks. Please just reply below and I will pass all answers on.

Here are the questions:

Q1. Questions about Portlets
1a) Please give your definition of portlets

1b) Please list specific characteristics (=attributes, properties) of portlets

1c) Please list specific features (=functionalities) of portlets

Q2. Questions about Widgets
2a) Please give your definition of widgets

2b) Please list specific characteristics (=attributes, properties) of widgets

2c) Please list specific features (=functionalities) of widgets

Q3. Please tell us, what do YOU consider as the major differentiator(s) between:
3a) Portlets and Widgets? (cf. Wikipedia on Web widget)

3b) Widgets and Java Applets? (cf. W3C Widget requirements)

Q4. Please share with us YOUR ideas how to evaluate:
4a) Portlets?

4b) Widgets?