Graham Kelly wrote:

On Thu, 31 May 2007 13:48:17 -0500, "Arrakis"

...

Obviously loom has a far way to go for usability, but I guess this is a process.

I am getting two very different classes of reaction from users: 1. I cannot believe how easy this interface is! It's amazing! 2. I have no idea how to use this user interface! It sucks! I believe the problem is primarily conceptual. Here's a little background on how Loom works. Consider buying a shirt at a retail clothing store. You walk up to the counter with the shirt, the cashier rings it up, and says that will be 37 euros please. You take the 37 euros out of your wallet and put it on the counter. The cashier then picks up the 37 euros and puts it in the cash register. You are now the proud owner of a new shirt. Loom works in a similar way. When Alice wants to pay Bob some euros, she does *not* stuff the euros directly into Bob's wallet or cash register. Instead, Alice puts the euros in a place where Bob can reach them. Then Bob *himself* picks up the euros and puts them into his wallet or cash register. That place on the counter-top where Alice puts the euros is called the "drop point." It is a location where the ownership of the euros is up for grabs. If Bob refuses the payment, Alice can take the euros right back from the drop point and put them back in her wallet. So a payment in Loom is a two-step process. Note that I am using "euros" in this example simply to make it more familiar to readers. Loom itself knows nothing about specific asset types like "euros" or even "gold" -- Loom is basically just an online spreadsheet of sorts. So again, a payment in Loom is a two-step process. 1. Alice moves the euros from her personal stash to a drop point X. 2. Bob moves the euros from the drop point X to his personal stash. Now before Alice can pay Bob, they need to *establish* that shared drop point X, and add it to their own respective folders. It doesn't matter who dreams up the drop point first, but let's say Alice does it. In her folder, Alice clicks Locations, then clicks to add a new location, presses Random to generate a new random drop point, types "Bob" as her nickname for that location, and presses Save. Now when Alice wants to give something to Bob, she can easily select "Bob" from the drop-down menu in her folder. But at this point only half of the picture is complete. Bob has not yet added the drop point to his *own* folder. First, Alice obviously needs to tell Bob the new drop point she generated. Ideally she could copy and paste the location into a PGP-encrypted email, but alternatively she could send it via Skype, or read it to Bob over the phone, or even send it in a plain unencrypted email. (Most of the time the drop point will be empty, so anyone intercepting the email and looking at the drop point will not typically see any assets. Let the user beware.) That part, the *communication* of the shared drop point, is where people have to be the most careful. Once the drop point is established in both folders, then payments are extremely easy and secure. So now let's say that Bob gets a Skype chat from Alice saying "Hey Bob, let's use this as our drop point: 0f6f31b8eeeb795a7885ac670a344de1". Bob replies "OK Alice, hold on just a sec!" Bob logs into his folder, clicks Locations, clicks to add a new location, and pastes that big number into the box labeled "Location". He types in a nickname for this location, which in this case will be "Alice". He presses Save. Now, when Bob wants to give something to Alice, he can easily select "Alice" from the drop-down menu in his folder. Note that the SAME drop point 0f6f31b8eeeb795a7885ac670a344de1 is now installed in both Alice's and Bob's folder. But also note that Alice has nicknamed that location as "Bob," while Bob has nicknamed that same location as "Alice." It makes complete sense when viewed from the perspective of Alice's and Bob's folders. At that point, everything is configured and Alice and Bob now have a shared drop point. They have established an "economic relationship" if you will. And now payments between Alice and Bob are amazingly easy and fast. When I showed this to my wife, she could not believe how easy it was. I just tested making a payment last night, and it took me TEN SECONDS FLAT, *including* logging into my folder to begin with. So let's say Alice wants to pay Bob 5.6 grams of loom gold. Here's the process. Click the stopwatch. 1. Alice visits loom.cc, enters her folder passphrase, and presses Login. 2. She types the number 5.6 into the quantity field. (Note that when she logs in, her cursor is already sitting there conveniently in the Qty field, so she doesn't even have to bother clicking into it.) 3. She selects "grams loom gold" from the drop-down menu labeled "choose asset." 4. She selects "Bob" from the drop-down menu labeled "choose location." 5. She presses the button labeled "Give". I don't know about Alice, but I can do that in about 10 seconds, if I don't mistype my passphrase. But now here's where things get even easier. Let's say Alice wants to make another payment, this time paying 3.25 grams to Carol. Here's the process. 1. Type 3.25 in the Qty field. 2. Click "Carol" in the drop-down location menu. 3. Press Give. Note that this time, Alice didn't even have to select the asset type, since she had already selected "grams loom gold" before. But wait!, you may ask. That's too easy, and Alice might make a mistake. Let's say Alice entered 32.5 instead of 3.25. No problem. When Alice notices the mistake, she can just quickly press the Take button to take the assets right back. Then she can fix the number and press Give. (Now if Bob somehow managed to be in his folder RIGHT AFTER Alice made her mistake, and he saw the 32.5 grams sitting there, and he did a Take to grab all those 32.5 grams before Alice had a chance to take them back herself, then there's a problem. But that's unlikely. And if it happens, then Alice should (1) chide herself for being so careless and (2) tell Bob to give the money back.) That's it. Payments done in seconds flat, and no fumbling around for drop points stored in a notepad file or written on slips of paper, and no account numbers (just handy nicknames for drop points, completely at your discretion). Now at some point I'll put all that background information up on the Loom site under the Help link, for those who actually bother to click Help links and read what's there. Personally, I generally loathe Help screens, but I really do have some helpful information there. Mind you, I have been BUSY ENOUGH just writing and testing this code, so please bear with me as I improve the help and educational process here. Realistically, the background information I just gave you will best circulate by word of mouth. This is basic conceptual background here. It's like knowing what the steering wheel and accelerator are for in an automobile. Nobody ever reads that stuff in a manual: they learn it from their father. It's probably somewhat akin to creating a MySpace page. If I signed up at MySpace, I'd probably fumble around for quite a while before I became adept at editing and placing content. Meanwhile, long-time MySpace users have established a deep tradition and understanding of the site, and are even using advanced editing tools. The Loom model is a *conceptual* shift away from ordinary payment systems -- it is a totally different paradigm of how ownership of arbitrary "units" may be transferred. Now if you think the Location (drop point) feature is mind-bending, just wait till you realize that even ASSET TYPES themselves can be added to folders. Right now when you create a new folder, the system automatically adds a few known asset types for you. If I hadn't done that, people would be ESPECIALLY baffled about Loom right now, arriving at my door with torches and pitchforks. That's right folks, the basic Loom system itself KNOWS NOTHING about specific asset types or what they mean. With the exception of the predefined asset types automatically added to newly created folders, you must "introduce" a new asset type into your folder. For example, let's say your friend Joe creates a new asset type which you and your friends will use to settle up lunch money debts. He'll choose some random asset identifier such as 857ca0317f031689f6782c8b2c09bbda, add it to his folder under a nickname such as "Sandwich Credits," and become the issuer of that type. Now, before Joe can pay Bob any of these new "Sandwich Credits," Bob will have to be informed about this new asset type. Joe tells Bob all about it, and how they'll use it to settle up lunch debts. Bob says OK sounds good. Bob logs into his folder, clicks the "Types" link (which I'm working on now), clicks to add a new type, pastes in the new asset type 857ca0317f031689f6782c8b2c09bbda, and nicknames it "Sandwich Credits". Bob could actually choose a different nickname if he preferred, perhaps "Sandwich from Joe!". (Maybe other people Bob knows have issued sandwich credits as well and Bob wants to keep them all straight in his mind.) Now when Joe slides some Sandwich Credits over to Bob's drop point, Bob will see them and he can then Take them up into his personal stash. This example underscores the fact that the Loom code itself is *totally generic*, and knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about specific asset types except for usage tokens. Consequently, the biggest hurdle users have to overcome is CONFIGURATION, e.g. adding nicknamed locations and asset types to their folders. Once that is done, the payment process is unbelievably easy. And even the configuration is not so bad, once you understand the basic concept of payment through shared drop points. -- Patrick --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'