I read the article and the hesitation to expose various details through the web, what the article describes as the conservative approach, is absolutely valid.

I read the article and the hesitation to expose various details through the web, what the article describes as the conservative approach, is absolutely valid. The biggest problem with exposing anything to the current web is complete exposure to anonymous strangers (loss of privacy) and all the security implications that come with that. It doesn't have to be that way. The crux of the web is HTTP, which exposes a pseudo-anonymous session-less client-server model. I am working on an application that inverts HTTP to a non-anonymous session-oriented server-client model exposing a GUI in the browser. The goal isn't privacy, but exposing new capabilities that only make sense in a private environment. There are numerous things people are willing to do on their desktop that would be absurd to do over the web. For example: there is no reason cross-platform file transfer should be challenging. Simply expose a slice of the file system to the net on a computer you own to somebody you trust and they can get what ever files they need at their convenience and discretion, like copy/paste from one folder to another folder except those folders are on different computers. The way the web currently works this isn't practical. The closest thing is a shared storage space in the cloud, like DropBox. Other potential capabilities include remote application access, remote hardware access, built-in media sharing (think non-proprietary video conferences/presentations), and synchronizing things between your various personal devices.