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RE: Is Web 2.0 the new XML?

• To: Xml-Dev <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Is Web 2.0 the new XML?
• From: Didier PH Martin <martind@n...>
• Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 08:17:33 -0400
• Importance: Normal
• Organization: netfolder
• Reply-to: martind@n...

Hello Gerald,

After reading the different definitions you provided, I came to the
conclusion that we have in fact two different movements:

a) Customizable site. People can not only interact with content but also do
some customization. Some would say User programming. Not in the classical
sense of writing a program but more as programming by selecting, doing, by
example.

b) Displacement of the locus of processing. Actually, the web architecture
is server centric reminiscent of the mainframe era. The locus of code
execution is the server and the clients are well...dummy clients reduced
mostly to rendition purposes. A new trend that gained more credibility after
an 800 pound gorilla (Google) provided some new applications built on this
paradigm. These new applications are more responsive, more like desktop
applications. Their look and feel may be different but their share the same
level of sophistication and responsiveness as their desktop cousins.

According to the definitions, the web 2.0 is giving more control to the
users. Hence, the interaction model is moving from a broadcast type of
communication to an interactive and constructive one.

My own view is that the web is simply becoming a distributed API, browsers
are run-time environments. The basic material of desktop applications is a
window. A kind of virtual screen used to share the limited resources of a
single physical screen. This window is empty and the modern operating
systems provide an API to _draw_ content on it. A web browser is more like a
structured window. It offers a single API used to structure content rendered
into the window. Hence a browser is a kind of window++ and the DOM is an
incarnation of the composite pattern. Other structured window experiment
(ex: gambit) demonstrated that the composite pattern is quite useful to
manipulate content. Actual browsers implicitly support a one to one
correspondence between HTML elements and visual object displayed in the
window. 

If we see the network as the computer, an emergent API is resulting from the
public publication of APIs also called web services (RESTFUL or not).
Creating an application is now a question of creatively mixing these APIs.

So, my take on the web 2.0 is that the web gets improved in two ways:

a) from the user perspective: more control.
b) from the developer perspective: displacement of the locus of action to
the client.

There is also a lot more to be said about the subject but outside its sunny
and I have more urgent things to do like, riding my bike or swimming in the
pool with my little daughter (now 3 1/2 years old).

Cheers
Didier PH Martin

-----Original Message-----
From: Gerald Bauer [mailto:gerald.bauer@m...] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 6:56 PM
To: xml-dev@l...
Subject:  Is Web 2.0 the new XML? 

Hello,

    I was wondering if anyone on the list has any comments on the rising 
Web 2.0 movement that seems gather all the momentum that plain old XML 
once had.

   Any comments? Any thoughts?

   - Gerald

PS: What is Web 2.0?

In case you wonder "What is Web 2.0?" allow me to highlight the "What's 
Web 2.0?" blog site online @ http://www.whatsweb20.com

Will Pate writes in the blog story titled "How Do We Define Web 2.0?": 
In true Web 2.0 fashion, the original definition started on Wikipedia, 
the collaborative online encyclopedia.... (see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 )

_____________________________________________________
Vancouver Web 2.0 Forum (Van2) - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/van2
Vancouver XML Association (VanX) - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vanx

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