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There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.
– Phil Karlton
OF should help with the first one, first by making resource representations immutable so that they can be stored as long as there is space, and by pushing updates proactively to the client.
When loading a resource, the current policy for OF clients is to immediately return the version contained in the cache if there is one, and connecting to the server to get updates. It means that for a short time the user can see stale data.
The alternative is to wait for server response when connected, but there is nothing more annoying than mobile browsers that first clear the page first when they get to the forefront. The data was there, but it is first cleared, then the browser tries to connect to the server showing a blank page for 10s.
I wish all applications would instead show stale data, with an icon like the one in the Images Demo that shows that synchronization is currently ongoing, and maybe the time of last sync like offline GMail. Users would become as familiar to this model as they are to the refresh button on browsers.