DeathOfTheWeb

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Seen on Meatball:

: Meatball should be ready for the upcoming DeathOfTheWeb lest it die with it, or lest it be forced to follow. -- SunirShah

What?

Well, the Web can't last forever, can it? remember, "Meatball will be around for 50 years." -- SunirShah

Bit self-referential this page, isn't it? Anyway whether the Web dies is a question of definition. Endlessly and unrecognizably mutate seems more likely ;o) -- AndrewCates

ShamelessPlug?: In a little bit depressive mood, I wrote a rant TheMythicalInternet? (rant does no longer exist, it did exist when first posted) about something like this... -- gmlk

re: Your rant. Rather than blame Windows, I agree with JudithDonath's assessment (qua IdentifyingSignal) that it had more to do with the commercialization of the Internet that divorced the person's originating IP address from their place of work or school. TheSeptemberThatNeverEnded gave people an anonymous presence on the Internet that had previously only been granted through geeks turning a blind eye (system administrators, protocol designers) or by geeks granting services (AnonymousProxy), but as soon as people could purchase disposable accounts with a guarantee of privacy by the provider who wanted to operate as a common carrier, the ability to EnforceResponsibility ended, and the floodgates opened. -- SunirShah

: You're right, but at the time I was just burned by AnotherWindowsUserWithoutAClue? (AngryCloud).

: Still, the experience most users of Windows have do very deeply influence the way they use computers and the internet, combined with the effects of anonymous internet... There was no way that the internet could have been saved. -- gmlk

One of my favorites is something like: "predictions are hard, especially when they are about the future." Web and Wiki are young phenomena for communication and cooperation using modern technology. They will live as long as people get enough advantages from them, they will be replaced when there is something better. No need to fear the first, no need to fear the second. There will be no future based on non-communication or non-cooperation using modern technology. The future is open. -- HelmutLeitner

Actually, I have a few very pragmatic predictions about the Web, at least the Web as seen by Razorfish. For one, static webpages and content are not going to do very well, since CopyrightLaw will never keep up with technical reality. Rather, like some sick world where Plato is both right and wrong, the TextAsObject? philosophy that underlies copyright (and therefore CopyLeft) will be challenged strongly by the LifeInText and TheProcessedBook view that will have TheAudience wanting to talk to TheAuthors, and then add themselves to the list of TheAuthors (not always, but frequently). This is why I'm not overly concerned with people lifting my text from MeatballWiki, provided it is sufficiently clean that I will not feel responsible for it when it is out of its context, but on the other hand I don't think it's too pragmatic a goal since most people will want to come here to talk to us, the people who wrote it. Indeed, my criticism of CommunityWiki (see CommunityWiki) explicitly takes into account this viewpoint. Since Meatball is focused on pragmatic conversations rather than publications of TextAsObject?, it will survive. On the other hand, the LongView? tension that Meatball has in its StyleGuide (write for today and for readers five years from now) creates LifeInText that will outlive the original context, which is often why our conversations look like publications. This is my CommunityOverContent view.

I also feel very strongly that visual space is not used very effectively in information design and communication. I believe that a SocialSemanticSpace? (e.g. ChatCircles) will be a powerful organizing metaphor sooner rather than later. I'm reading a lot on the nature of space. I would love to build some sort of socially negotiated spatial view of MeatballWiki at some point. -- SunirShah

The Web is best when it is a VanityPress. I actually think the Web died with HTML 4, DHTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, XML, XHTML, the SemanticWeb, and all these other super-techy technologies. When the web was as complicated as bashing your keyboard, it was a writer-friendly medium. Now, the Web is stagnating as it is too difficult for average people to write on it. Over time, it will condense back into the standard media power structure. Software like wikis will be akin to flyers on lampposts. Perhaps. Either way, the graphic/web designers who cry for XHTML+CSS compliance are only doing so to protect their own jobs. For the rest of humanity, standards compliance is irrelevant. TimBernersLee was right when he made the browser fault tolerant. His latest SemanticWeb effort is bizarre. -- SunirShah

A new Web will be born when sites stop being just VanityPresses and become NetworkService?s. Creating media is more important than create messages. (e.g. GoogleAPI?, ReallySimpleSyndication, DelIcioUs?, Flickr) -- SunirShah

The DeathOfTheWeb is simply that our primary interface with the Internet, the PersonalComputer?, is not going to be dominant. ElectronicPaper and WallScreen?s and PervasiveComputing will probably be more prevalent. CellPhones have already shown quite vividly that there can be a whole other network separate from the Internet that is almost entirely proprietary (owned by cellphone service providers like NTTDoCoMo? and its iMode service). -- SunirShah

DeathOfTheWeb

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