My recent conversation with Ian Jacobs started off pretty simple. The Web is turning 25 this year and the W3C that manages web standards will be turning 20 years old - pretty amazing. They have a number of activities they are planning in a bid to highlight these anniversaries and we were also looking to do some highlights of them at DevCon5.
As usual though, the goal was to explore all opportunities and I went through the various shows that I support in one way or another. When it came to WebRTC, I heard Ian tell me this was an important initiative at W3C and that Dominique Hazaël-Massieux was the lead.
Since I constantly (and accidentally) insult my IETF friends looking for the W3C types that pay attention to WebRTC, I ran to the page of W3C staff members.
Here is what I found:
What I like about this, is the fact that he is focused on mobile and APIs. Also, if you follow Dominique on Twitter, he is pushing the concept of web OS strategies.
Like me, he does not hold to the view that we are doomed to a life of Objective C and Java Shims as the way to provide mobile apps.
Unlike me, he is in a position to do something about it.
As Peter Dunkley of Crocodile RCS and several other friends have discussed, the more we can show of the web working with WebRTC, the less it will be about phone calls and the more it will be about contextual conversations.
I am not sure where the web will be after the next 25 years, but I am sure it will be more innovative for communications than touchtone or using WebRTC as a port 80 work around.
I am hoping to see more WebRTC infiltrating the apps we use, even if they have to be found in an App Store today.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
