HTML5 and The Social Web
A default conversation I often have with my dad is, “What features do you think will be on the next iPad?”
Now, my dad and I have very different approaches to technology. I dive in and intuit everything, and he reads extensively first. When he bought an iPod, he actually read iPod and iTunes for Dummies before booting it up. So while he subscribes to Mac World, he’s the kind of user that still needs to read a few arguments/ instructional chapters before putting a password on his Wi-fi.
Last time we were having our iPad conversation, he said, “Do you think the next one will have Flash? I really hope it does.” This surprised me. I should have figured my dad would know what Flash was – he is an architect after all, and has to use a lot of complicated software. But after I realized that he knew what Flash was, I was surprised to find that the “my dad” demographic was so for it. Why?
My basic theory would be that people who are in favor of Flash are not fully participating in the social aspect of the Internet. If you’re watching movie previews and online shopping, printing coupons and reading The New York Times, the preeminence of Flash might not bother you. It might even contribute to your entertainment.
Let’s do a thought experiment and travel back in time to when I was a younger pup who did not know anything about HTML and just liked to hang out on the Internet, writing on Live Journal and finding new indie bands to listen to on my 2nd-gen iPod. I wasn’t exactly sure what Flash was, but whenever I right-clicked on something and saw that it was in Flash, I was disappointed. It seemed locked, part of some higher-level corporate Internet. It did not want to be shared and copied, it wanted to stay where it was, communicating what people had put so much money into communicating.
What I like about HTML5 is it strives to make everything pluckable. Nothing you click on is a dead image that you can’t copy and paste and share on one of the dozens of places people are sharing content. It feels like you can really dig your hands in and become part of it, rather than surfing and running into all these walls. The ultimate impact of switching to HTML5 is an internet that feels more open, interactive and transparent.
I want Steve Jobs to keep up the fight. Maybe cuz I like a fight, but mostly because I want to see what people create while trying to find a better way around it.
-Becky Lang