Remember The Visible Man? It was a hobby model kit featuring a transparent plastic shell of a human with all the organs and bones visible through it. Great, gross fun as a kid. Some even had a heart that could pump liquid through the major veins and arteries and a working diaphram that could expand and contract the lungs.
Visibility. Its important to be able to see the guts to get an understanding of how something works. To develop a proper user model.
I've taught a class in the past called "Computing Gestalt" in which I try to transfer a lot of the details of how a computer works that a programmer understands to a user who is normally not exposed to such things. One of the first exercises is assembling a computer from parts. As each part is added its purpose is discussed. Once its all assembled the computer is switched on without a case. Its an exercise to "break the seal" and promote familiarity and a feeling of exploration. Computers can be understood once you look inside.
The networking portion centers around the example of how a web browser works. What happens to display a web page on your screen? For most users its:
1) Type in URL
2) *MAGIC PONIES!*
3) Page appears on your screen.
We step through each part of the process of connecting a computer to the Internet and fetching a web page that might be useful in debugging a failure: Ethernet, DHCP, TCP/IP, DNS, ports, HTTP and HTML. This mostly involves chalkboard work and the occassional telnet session with hand written HTTP to expose what's going on under the hood.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to make this all visible *AS IT HAPPENS*?! What if there was a connection visualization browser for Firefox where you saw what was going on as the browser processes the connection? Not as text but as colorful, easy to understand pictures? What if you could "zoom in" on various parts to see more detail? What if you could slow down the process so you can observe it carefully?
Wouldn't that be neat?
I think I have my project for BarCamp Block.
PS If this exists, please let me know.