NetPlusUltra®-Enabled Digital Rights Engineering, by Daniela BERNDT

Principles of Conceptual Dedication of Shared Resources

From the perspective of the author seeking to secure his capitalization and affiliation perimeter, the problem to be solved at this stage lies in the implementation - using dedicated tools - of the member-restricted paid access to proprietary collaborative workspaces which host contents that are an integral part of the franchised author's business fund, whether the said franchise networks are Intranet+Ultra® and/or Extranet+Ultra® environments. In the conceptual sequence order of a production process of growing complexity, such dedicated tools are, for a macOS user, the "macOS Server+" app (i.e. a new version thereof), the self-hosted ".org" version of WordPress, as well as such proprietary turnkey solutions which (have the potential to) provide ready-made multi-OS "Extranet+" platforms.
In legal terms, securing all parts of the whole starts with checking on the conceptual integrity of the user configuration, through a "Scangate" module to be integrated into my future affiliation portal: as both a web-based guarantee against cybercrime and an entirely dedicated NetPlusUltra® solution, such a conceptual scanner falls under my managerial responsibility as a master-franchisor and project initiator, and remains to be developed in a shared web hosting environment of the Performance type (↳), on the grounds of the specifications which I have been publishing since 2013. To make sure that this registration procedure does not end up more complicated than a simple declarative formality by which an author submits an inventory pertaining to the perimeter to be protected, which binds both the prospective franchisee and me as the provider, all issues raised at each step of this virtual Testfolio-Omega-based demo path - which by the same token becomes a long-term commitment - must be resolved as announced, so as to ensure that each web production project initiated upstream gets a fair chance to make it to a sustainable downstream outcome, instead of ending up stuck in the cloudy occultism generated by the overall system default of structural incompleteness.
In economic terms, solving the problem of a market supply which remains typically inappropriate with regard to what is really needed implies, at the native "Intranet+" level, to entirely redesign the Mac OS X Server application according to the market requirements laid down below, with a view to making the latter compliant with an economic model grounded in a conceptual rationale of paid access and subscription rights, conceived so as to pave the way out of the prevailing logic of depleting knowledge resources by marketing them in detached pieces, which is inherent in the virtualization of classical distribution models. Such an upgrade must be continued, at the multi-OS "Extranet+" level, through the integration, into the catalogue of shared and dedicated solutions of every professional web host, of a localized (i.e. national) payment module, which, as a natively dedicated official extension, would be compatible with any type of web module available (blogs, CMS, e-commerce [↳]).
From the organizational and technical perspective of making it didactically simple for a web author (and project initiator) to implement a paid access to his·her contents, both at the "Intranet+" and "Extranet+" service levels, it is urgent to move over to a model of reciprocal accountability which preserves the autonomy of the author by reducing, or suppressing entirely, the latter's dependence on the provider's technical assistance (written or phone-based) when it comes to the initial configuration of a server equipment, which translates into an entirely automated - app-based (in the case of "macOS Server+") or web-host-based - process of declarative configuration. Along the same line of reasoning, and in terms of shared web hosting, important improvements are expected both with regard to the web statistics component supplied by default with every package (this point will be developed at step 9), and to the transparency of international SSL certification standards supposed to secure web hosting servers (the announcement by OVH, in late 2015, of a partnership with Let's Encrypt, which was confirmed in early 2016, turned out to be a good start).
  • ASSETS (AFTER)
  • LIABILITIES (BEFORE)
"Intranet+" level • Vision of a new "macOS Server+"-enabled user experience:

  • The concept-enabled manual is an automated configuration guide which recomposes itself with each new declaration of intended usage by the user: every new customization option selected lightens the integrated help contents of whatever the user does no longer need to worry about.

  • The former "OS X Server" services have been redesigned according to whether they enable (CMS-based) collaboration or (app-based) publication, so that it is no longer necessary to choose between a "Wiki Server" (Intranet+) or a "Web Sites" (Extranet+) configuration.

  • The overall improvement of the user experience is a direct result of the changes brought to the upstream publication process at identifier level (ISP, System, VPS, other), as laid out throughout the preceding stages.

"Extranet+" level • Improvements expected at the shared web hosting user experience level:

  • Considering that the reference manuals will only be of interest to such users who need them, they should be removed from unrestricted internet access with a view to progressive reintegration into the user interface, as conceptually optimized service-critical contents reserved for the exclusive use of registered customers.

  • The integration of such help contents to the user interface, in the form of question marks providing a clear definition of each configuration option, would enable the deactivation of such functionalities that a specific selection makes useless.

  • The SSL certificate must be configured right upon registration with a web host, i.e. reintegrated by default to all web hosting packages, so as to be enabled to update itself automatically according to the ever-evolving declaration(s) of intended use(s) made by the author or required from the latter.

Intranet level • Major weaknesses of Apple's OS X Server app:

  • The user guide is a catalogue of everything that is technically possible in terms of server configuration, which ultimately turns the user experience into a genuine interpretative puzzle.

  • The quick start guides are much too generic with regard to user requirements which, at this level of (expected) overall savviness, are (or should be) much more specific.

  • Although a comprehensive intranet solution, the "Wiki Server" service is no longer flexible enough to compete with increasingly modular and adaptive web standards.

  • A server configuration of the intranet type ("Wiki Server" with remote VPN access from the internet) forces to give up the "Web Sites" service, which is not even complete enough as it comes short of a compatible web editing tool.

Extranet level • Major weaknesses of OVH's shared web hosting pro pack:

  • The user guides are all too often written in a technical jargon which makes their interpretation dependent on a written request (to be supplemented by subsequent phone calls) to the support staff.

  • While the web statistics module available by default (Google's Urchin v6) collects the visitors' IP addresses, it also generates traffic data which, on a comprehensive Webfolio such as mine, are mostly unusable.

  • As demonstrated in 2014 through my Checkfolio module at https://ssl-checkpoint.daniela-berndt.foundation/en/ (↳), the (shared and private) SSL certification model available by default generates alarming analytical reports upon scanner verification [as indicated above, this problem is now partially solved, thanks to the integration by OVH of Let's Encrypt's free SSL certificate].

  • The rather austere user forum comes short of a quality-oriented showcase area.

In terms of the declarative dedication of shared resources based on clearly defined objectives, a conceptual revision of the client-server interactions could improve the user experience along the following NetPlusUltra®-sustained process rationale:

  1. Upon purchase and configuration of a "Mac Book Server" for example, the user is expected to know exactly what s·he wants, insofar as s·he is already comfortable with the configuration of a private Virtual Publication Server.

  2. The first configuration step will therefore be about declaring the website dedicated to the presentation of the franchise perimeter to which the server services are supposed to provide secured paid-access guarantees. This demo website will either be hosted either on the user's VPS on the "Intranet+" ring, or on a third-party web hosting server on the "Extranet+" ring.

  3. Then comes the choice of the type of server configuration: the user will most certainly want to produce either a collaborative native "Intranet+" workspace exclusively, or a multi-OS "Extranet+" experience, which does not exclude the possibility to start with an "Intranet+" service, with a view to the further expansion thereof into the "Extranet+" ring at a later stage.

  4. In the case of a native "Intranet+", the access granted to authorized members by the user will be provided exclusively from inside the Intranet+Ultra® market dedicated to macOS and iOS technologies, whereas in the case of a multi-OS "Extranet+", such an access will also be provided from inside the Extranet+Ultra® market of conceptually dedicated technologies.

  5. In terms of project-specific collaboration, it is by selecting the appropriate service level that the user will be enabled to automatically activate and configure the needed collaborative server services (such as Calendar, Mail, Messages, FaceTime), whereas the subsequent customization of access privileges will depend on the types of contents which the user intends to provide (Profile Manager, Members Directory, File Sharing, Time Machine backups).

  6. In terms of project-specific production, the "Wiki Server" (Intranet+) and "Web Sites" (Extranet+) services should each be redesigned into an uniquely comprehensive CMS-like web design solution dedicated to its respective service level, i.e. bound to become the ultimate web production reference in terms of multisite management both in macOS environments and towards iOS platforms.

  7. Each and every web module produced at the native "Intranet+" level reserves the latter for "internal" publication and use, either to the user's private local home server providing remote VPN access from the outside (native LAN perimeter), or to the Intranet+Ultra® market of macOS and iOS technologies (native WAN perimeter). Which also means that it will take to expand such an initial configuration to the multi-OS "Extranet+" ring in order to be enabled to activate the corresponding third-party web hosting options, when the objective is redefined along the way towards promoting one's contents up into the Extranet+Ultra®-sustained digital economy.

An entire revision of the web hosting supply at each level of the capitalization process, according to the requirements of a contemporary digital economy, would enable by the same token to improve, in a much more self-promoting way, the perception of such web services which are sold through highly technical web portals such as OVH's for example (↳). Indeed:

  • the personal shared web hosting plan (↳) is what the user should find at the "Externet+" level (step 2) as part of his·her ISP package, in the form of a "personal pages" option;

  • the VPS offer (↳) is supposed to be an integral part of the user's operating system, according to the terms laid out at step 6;

  • whereas the dedicated web hosting plans (↳) are not supposed to discourage any prospect from engaging in the production of quality contents.

The overall user experience would be greatly enhanced on every front: both at the technical level of each initial configuration, and at the qualitative level of user communities, whose web authors and service providers would see their contents promoted through a much more rewarding and self-sustainable showcase framework.