3 ms·

How the web was lost (2020)

4 points by leotravis10 5y ago

rektide 5y ago
this is so vastly much better an account of things than i expect. the main missing part of the story is the reciprocal industrailization of the web. the transition to "modules" in javascript effectively precluded easy/slap it together developmemt & introductory material re-crystalized around the new increasingly advanced & presumptive frameworks, like backbone then react. the web, if it is to rediscover it's childlike better/creative soul, needs to emerge a better connection with html, & some semi-independence from code. javascript isnt the problem, any other language would be just as toxic, detract from the essentialism of the page itself being a living representatuon of itself. code, presently, is like a second spirit world, a totally different place, that informs & directs the real page, but which is it's own abstracted & arbitrary decoupled other. this article treats the downfall of the web as cultural inevtiability. but i think therecs a lot of technical opening up the web could do to make itself a more tenable, exploratory, creative place. it doesnt have to be all of the web, but more frontierspersonship in a variety of places, over time, i think is imminently possible & would be one of the only places computing as a ehole has open to it to create a more sympathetic computing, with humans better able to tune in & appreciate the technics underfoot, & the technicals better able to expose themselves & make themselves apparent & available to the current user & agent. the web remains uniquely capable of starting to close the chasm, make computing fun & interesting & empowering again. i stress again, i think the death of the web is at least as technically drive a demise as it was a social usurping. of course the technica were driven towards industrialization by the social side becoming dominated by industrial concerns, but it just meams there's a lot of untapped technical potential to re-serve, re-amplify the web for independent & broad humanistic/pro-hci concerns.

4 points by leotravis10 5y ago

this is so vastly much better an account of things than i expect. the main missing part of the story is the reciprocal industrailization of the web. the transition to "modules" in javascript effectively precluded easy/slap it together developmemt & introductory material re-crystalized around the new increasingly advanced & presumptive frameworks, like backbone then react. the web, if it is to rediscover it's childlike better/creative soul, needs to emerge a better connection with html, & some semi-independence from code. javascript isnt the problem, any other language would be just as toxic, detract from the essentialism of the page itself being a living representatuon of itself. code, presently, is like a second spirit world, a totally different place, that informs & directs the real page, but which is it's own abstracted & arbitrary decoupled other. this article treats the downfall of the web as cultural inevtiability. but i think therecs a lot of technical opening up the web could do to make itself a more tenable, exploratory, creative place. it doesnt have to be all of the web, but more frontierspersonship in a variety of places, over time, i think is imminently possible & would be one of the only places computing as a ehole has open to it to create a more sympathetic computing, with humans better able to tune in & appreciate the technics underfoot, & the technicals better able to expose themselves & make themselves apparent & available to the current user & agent. the web remains uniquely capable of starting to close the chasm, make computing fun & interesting & empowering again. i stress again, i think the death of the web is at least as technically drive a demise as it was a social usurping. of course the technica were driven towards industrialization by the social side becoming dominated by industrial concerns, but it just meams there's a lot of untapped technical potential to re-serve, re-amplify the web for independent & broad humanistic/pro-hci concerns.