[cap-talk] Capability accounting

[Sandro Magi]

Norman Hardy wrote:
> I agree with all your points. Agents for some situations are easy  
> however.
> I can instruct an agent in my browser to pay up to 1 cent for any
> link that I explicitly click on but 10 cents for any NY Times page I  
> select.
> Other demands by web servers will require my explicit attention.

I think the problem, is that metered resources like water and
electricity have:

1. sufficiently course-grained controls, power switches and faucets, so
the user can mentally track/estimate how much these resources were
actually used (should he so choose).

2. sufficiently stable, or at least slowly-varying, prices (so there's
no shocking "surprise" after the fact).

3. sufficient confidence in the metering equipment (such that they would
rarely dispute the results).

Software is clearly lacking in #3, but since we're dealing with "ideal",
capability-based software, we'll assume this is handled to our
satisfaction. :-)

#2 is problematic, as 10c links on one site could 20c links, or $100
links elsewhere. This price variability must be explicitly programmed or
configured each time, should you decide for "metered" user interaction.
Managing all this information strikes me as quite a burden, though I'm
open to suggestions.

#1 is a real problem with today's software. AJAX architectures
(potentially) don't fit into the web model you presented. If the browser
is loading data incrementally or dynamically, or in such a fashion that
the user is not aware of the background data transfers, he can be
charged in ways he's not aware of. This interaction is sufficiently
complicated that I can't see it being automated via agents with any
degree of confidence.

But perhaps I've misunderstood your user interaction model.

Sandro