Jmol page developers,
Today I am giving a workshop on the use of Jmol in general and inorganic
chemistry. Tomorrow the subject is organic chemistry, and Thursday it is
physical chemistry. These workshops are at the Universidad Mayor San Simón,
in Cochabama, Bolivia. Please feel free to come and help me out!
While there is widespread fast internet in Bolivia, there are certainly
times and places where it is not available. (One of those places is an
auditorium where I am giving another presentation tomorrow.)
I have an idea that will change the way Jmol is used in many parts of the
world. It will open up opportunities for millions of students and thousands
of professors and high-school teachers to use Jmol. It's simple. I'm not
sure exactly what to call it, but for now I am calling it "Jmol Unplugged".
Here is the idea:
Somewhere - possibly SourceForge - we create a site where people can upload
fully contained web site "packages" that amount to stand-alone web
applications. For example, I just created this directory:
http://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/unplugged/sites
where we find
http://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/unplugged/sites/coolMolecules.zip
http://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/unplugged/sites/orbitals.zip
These are the fully-contained fully operational JavaScript versions of
http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/chemistry/mo/struc
http://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/orbitals
They can be downloaded to a laptop and -- provided the browser is set up
for local file reading -- they will run totally disconnected from the web.
The conditions for curation would be something like this:
1) *For the most part* the site must work without an internet connection.
It would be fine if it still has a few links to external pages that are not
critical to the function of the site. But the primary function of the site
would have to be self-contained. That means no use of NCI Resolver,
PubChem, or RCSB, for example.
2) The site is JavaScript only. Or, at least it is either Java-only or
JS-only, and if it is Java only, that is clearly indicated in its file
name.
3) The contributor understands that they are giving away their site.
Someone can now take it, change it, put it up somewhere on their own.
Whatever. Maybe there's a licensing agreement that has to be worked out. I
don't know.
Obviously we would need some sort of introductory page with descriptions
of the site packages. I think that would be a Wiki -- maybe even Wikipedia?
Not sure about that.
We would have to think about whether we want to have these totally
self-contained, with the j2s directory, or not. My inclination is that we
DO have them contain the j2s directory so that no changes to Jmol affect
the site. But there might be other options there. I don't want to make this
more complicated than it has to be.
I think there's a publication in this for anyone who wants to help organize
it and get it off the ground. It will take some effort to standardize it,
figure it out, and curate it.
Right now I am asking for anyone who wants to contribute their work to send
me a link to a zip file that, when opened, contains your site and fits
these criteria.
If you would let me use your site in my workshops and put them up
temporarily at chemapps.stolaf.edu, send me a link today.
Thank you!
Bob
--
Robert M. Hanson
Larson-Anderson Professor of Chemistry
St. Olaf College
Northfield, MN
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/hansonr
If nature does not answer first what we want,
it is better to take what answer we get.
-- Josiah Willard Gibbs, Lecture XXX, Monday, February 5, 1900
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