formulatiing my thoughts on web interoperability
The following is a quote from the World Wide Web consortium, describing their mandate:
W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines. Since 1994, W3C has published more than 110 such standards, called W3C Recommendations. W3C also engages in education and outreach, develops software, and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web. In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. W3C refers to this goal as “Web interoperability.” By publishing open (non-proprietary) standards for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation.
Is it just me or is there a growing number of browser-based applications breaking the Web metaphor and in my mind at least, the social contract inherent in delivering your application over a browser? Recently, several high profile applications have been relying on direct x, a technology which precludes Linux Users and Mac Users from utilizing the "Web" application in question. The whole concept of the World Wide Web was an ideal of providing universal access/ universal distribution of information. Linking that information to a technology that is supported by only one operating system seems to violate the spirit of the Web. Or perhaps I am making mountains of molehills?
W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines. Since 1994, W3C has published more than 110 such standards, called W3C Recommendations. W3C also engages in education and outreach, develops software, and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web. In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. W3C refers to this goal as “Web interoperability.” By publishing open (non-proprietary) standards for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation.
Is it just me or is there a growing number of browser-based applications breaking the Web metaphor and in my mind at least, the social contract inherent in delivering your application over a browser? Recently, several high profile applications have been relying on direct x, a technology which precludes Linux Users and Mac Users from utilizing the "Web" application in question. The whole concept of the World Wide Web was an ideal of providing universal access/ universal distribution of information. Linking that information to a technology that is supported by only one operating system seems to violate the spirit of the Web. Or perhaps I am making mountains of molehills?