I think this is the narrow path where I see a better way. A lot of people talking about this kind of thing are saying "I need to be producing a product either for the data layer or for the presentation layer", which is probably true, but I'm not finding someone who's creating a data layer that integrates seamlessly into a separate presentation layer. I thought Google was going to do it with sites and their suite, but they always get so close to a complete product that it's infuriating. I thought atlassian could do it, but their wiki just bundles the two together. thegrid sounds interesting, but I think there's enough interest from management in a company that, if creating the site was easy enough, they would do it. So yeah, I think that's a little closer to what I want to pitch.separating the data layer from the presentation layer (the promise of COPE and XML) always requires you to go with a least-common-denominator implementation that is neither pleasant to read or use
Well shit. Then count me in. I've designed many applications over the decades, and even got one funded by venture capitalists and then purchased by Deutsche Telekom. So I can help. I also have worked with a fantastic Argentinian UX designer, who works cheap and fast. So I can bring her in when we have some functionality nailed down. Let me know if you are interested.