Anyone who had one of these growing up will understand my gut reaction to this question.
I recently got a Google Daydream, so I’m realizing that Virtual Reality is pretty cool.
Not much content out there for it, but I’ve used it enough to say…
…that it feels weird to strap your phone to your head.
But I can already tell—this will be a big deal.
As a web developer, WebVR in the browser is pretty exciting. I like the idea of browsing VR content without having to download an application to do it.
I just hope that medical science will keep pace sufficiently with the inevitability that, as a human race, our bodies will never exercise or be exposed to sunlight ever again.
My second gut reaction—the smart home. That’s kinda exciting, I guess. I have a sensor in my daughter’s room to monitor the temperature.
But I keep asking myself the same question: Does everything really need to be accessible via the web?
Consider this web enabled selfie coke bottle, which one can only assume features Kendal Jenner in this photo working with Coke before she moved on to Pepsi. Is this necessary? No.
Or more recently this $400 WiFi enabled Juicer that squeezes Juice from proprietary bags of juice. Yes, it adds a nice layer of DRM to your fruit. But don’t worry, uh, you can still squeeze the bags by hand.
And of course, the Smart TV.
If you have a Vizio TV, your watching data was probably sold to advertisers.
Or this real news story about an anchor on-air that said “Alexa order me a Dollhouse” and devices in viewers’ homes ordered dollhouses. This was much to the delight of both kids who wanted dollhouses and privacy schadenfreudists everywhere.
I guess Smart TVs now show Banner Advertisements too. This one pops up when you change the volume level.
Get out that Brawndo folks, we’ve arrived.
The tech world is at a Jurassic Park moment.
“I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody’s ever done before.”
“Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
The tech world—Silicon Valley especially—can be an echo chamber.
Merely existing outside of this echo chamber can be a competitive advantage.
So, what am I excited about?
I’m excited to get back to basics.
To look at the fundamental principle of what makes the web is great—ubiquity.
The internet is becoming accessible to more people, world wide.
In 2005, only 15% of the world’s population was online.
In 2015, it was up to almost 44%.
In 2016, the UN passed a resolution condemning disruption of internet access by governments—formally stating that Internet access was a human right.
This is why Omaha’s amazing one-of-a-kind digital library—Do Space—and their “free and open to all” mission is so important. It gives people access to this powerful communication and learning tool.
The web should not be a gated community for Silicon Valley elites. The more diversity that’s represented in our online communities, the better the web will be.
As web developers, we need to ask ourselves if we’re building a World Wide Web…
That tweet was a little old so let’s fast forward to 2016.
“250 million Opera Mini users, 50% are on Android/iOS and 50% are on feature phones.”—Bruce Lawson
Opera is the most used web browser in a bunch of African countries.
Let’s critically analyze the size of our web sites and apps and consider what their cost can mean to someone on a metered data connection. Check out What Does My Site Cost? to find out just how much your web site costs to someone in a different country.
Increased awareness of these constraints will lead to a faster and lighter web for everyone.
So let’s welcome our new friends to the web.
If not with a hello, with an ethical, accessible, and affordable "Hello World";
