Future of the Internet: Do Web Technologies Need an Owner?
By Dennis Kuba
September 27, 2011
September 27, 2011
- Software engineer Joe Hewitt proposed in a recent blog post that Web technologies may need an owner, and the assumption that the Web must not be controlled by anyone is a dangerous one. “The HTML, CSS, and JavaScript triumvirate are just another platform, like Windows and Android and iOS,” he writes, “except that unlike those platforms, they do not have an owner to take responsibility for them.”
- He also suggests that “the arrogance of Web evangelists is staggering” since they “place ideology above relevance.”
- Standards bodies cannot create the kind of cutting edge platforms developers need like they are doing with iOS, Android and Windows.
- “My prediction is that, unless the leadership vacuum is filled, the Web is going to retreat back to its origins as a network of hyperlinked documents,” writes Hewitt. “The Web will be just another app that you use when you want to find some information, like Wikipedia, but it will no longer be your primary window. The Web will no longer be the place for social networks, games, forums, photo sharing, music players, video players, word processors, calendaring, or anything interactive. Newspapers and blogs will be replaced by Facebook and Twitter and you will access them only through native apps.”
Topics: Android, Apple, CSS, Facebook, Forums, Game, Google, HTML, Internet, iOS, Joe Hewitt, Music Players, Online, Photo Sharing, Social, Social Network, Twitter, Web, Wikipedia
4 Comments
The author “Joe Hewitt is a software programmer who is best known for his work on the Firefox web browser.” – Wikipedia
The author “Joe Hewitt is a software programmer who is best known for his work on the Firefox web browser.” – Wikipedia
Don’t miss Joe’s follow-up “What the Web is and is not” — based on reader response to the ownership post:
http://joehewitt.com/post/what-the-web-is-and-is-not/
Don’t miss Joe’s follow-up “What the Web is and is not” — based on reader response to the ownership post:
http://joehewitt.com/post/what-the-web-is-and-is-not/
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