An out of browser experience
We managed to make it to the Highland Fling this year.
No, nothing to do with cabers, it’s an annual web developers conference held in Edinburgh.
Yes, I know this was almost two weeks ago but thanks to some distractions and a bout of The Dreaded Lurgi I’ve been unable to write a post about this till now.
This year’s conference was titled “The Browser and Beyond” and had an eye to the future of what the web will mean in three, five, ten years time. It covered topics from mobile browsing through real time updates to desktop applications built using Adobe AIR.
Alan has put in place a superb presentation format too. Breaking from the usual mold of post-presentation question/answer sessions, instead the speakers landed on what looked much like a therapist’s couch to be interrogated by Paul Boag. Ammunition/questions supplied by the audience over the mediums of twitter, email and paper aeroplane.
Some very enjoyable presentations made it an entertaining day as well as informative but I think the day was summed up best by the very first speaker (Mark Norman Francis of Yahoo! Europe). “The web is change”.
He’s right - looking at the history of the internet from the olden days of ARPA net through to modern times makes you realise just how much has changed in such a short period of time. The internet is only 39 years old and it’s far from set in its ways. Google (which I refer to as “the other half of my brain” at times) has only been around 12 years. Web standards HTML with CSS has only really taken off in the past 6 years, and it’s still not everywhere. Just compare the “99% bad” Flash animations of 2000 with today’s accessible, powerful application framework.
Some people might think that once they’ve got an application or a website all of a sudden that’s the internet problem “solved”.
If it were only that easy… People are finding new ways to interact all the time (and old ways are falling by the wayside - just check how popular email isn’t with the younger generation), social networking is the big thing at the moment but there will be something new next year or the year after next (it might still be social but it’ll be different). It might be something sparked by ubiquitous wireless access. It might be something completely out of the blue.
I don’t think the browser will be going anywhere soon but change (as always) is in the air. Who knows we might be fighting off Pterodactyls in our Zeppelins before the decade is out (cheers for that Simon).
In the words of Corporal Hicks: Stay frosty and alert.
Here’s looking forward to next year’s conference.