Joe Hewitt: ‘Web Technologies Need an Owner’

Joe Hewitt:

Many people seem to assume that the Web will one day become the one and only client computing platform on Earth, therefore it must not be controlled by anyone. This is a dangerous assumption. The HTML, CSS, and JavaScript triumvirate are just another platform, like Windows and Android and iOS, except that unlike those platforms, they do not have an owner to take responsibility for them.

It’s nearly impossible to make radical change through consensus. Be sure to read his follow-up too:

So, my definition of the Web then is resources loaded over the Internet using HTTP and then displayed in a hyperlink-capable client. This definition is liberating. It helps me see a future beyond HTML which is still the Web.

★ Tuesday, 27 September 2011