Transcript for HTML5 and Rich Internet Applications Panel from TechHui Conference 2010

Aloha!

Thanks to TechHui and University of Hawaii's Pacific New Media for producing the TechHui 2010 Conference and inviting me to join. I was lucky enough to talk about HTML5 and then join the Rich Internet Applications panel to represent HTML5. The Star Advertiser even wrote up a short blurb on my involvement:

Google guru to gab

Google is sending one of its newest developer advocates to Hawaii for tomorrow's annual TechHui conference, where he will preach the gospel of an open Web to the glitterati of Hawaii's geek, er, tech community.

Seth Ladd lived in Hawaii for seven years, "the longest I've ever lived anywhere," but he moved away about three weeks ago to join Google. He was most recently director of software at Camber Corp., a defense contractor with offices here.

"Google's really betting on an open Web, open technology and open standards" for Web development, he said.

For the dedicated HTML5 talk, I used the Interactive HTML5 Presentation from HTML5 Rocks!.

For the RIA panel, I put together a 10 minute presentation on HTML5 in Perspective. I wanted to how attendees think about HTML5 and how it relates to, and is shaping, the current landscape of Web development.

Below you will find the transcript of the HTML5 in Perspective presentation. Thoughts and comments are always welcome!

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Aloha, my name is Seth Ladd, and I’m a Developer Advocate at Google. I am working on the Chrome platform. This includes Chrome browser, Chrome OS, Google TV, and Chrome Web Store. I, until very recently, also lived here on Oahu and I’m very happy to be back in the islands.

Before I start, I want to quickly explain what a Developer Advocate is. You might think it's just a fancy name for an evangelist, but I think it's quite different. I advocate for, and on behalf of, developers and engineers. I am a liaison between our partner developers and Google’s engineering and product teams. Most of my day is spent helping partners and teams best understand the Web as a platform, open standards like HTML5, and how best to approach developing products for the Open Web. I give measured feedback and help engineers and teams come to their own conclusions. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m very excited to be here today.

Hopefully many of you were at my talk during lunch, in which I covered the many cool features in the HTML5 family of technologies. If you missed it, or want to learn more about HTML5, I’ll show some URLs at the end here where you can learn more and play with some cool demos. You can always grab me afterwards and I’ll be happy to chat with you.

Since there are far too many new HTML5 features to cover in depth right now, I want to instead help put HTML5 into perspective. I believe the Web is entering a new era of fast paced innovation and competition. You’ll see, experience, and begin to expect more from the new generation of web applications. I, and Google, believe that the future of the Web will be built on open standards and as an open platform. And this open platform will be HTML5.

I think I used open quite a lot there. This is how I like to think of Open:

• anyone can implement it without paying or asking permission
• anyone can connect to it without paying or asking
• not encumbered by potentially restrictive licensing
• freely available to vendors and users
• a level playing field

Let’s begin by defining HTML5. Simply put, HTML5 is the collection of next generation web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML5 is an open set of technologies that run inside of modern web browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and IE9. HTML5 also runs on multiple form factors such as computers, laptops, tablets, netbooks, phones, and TVs.

Specifically, HTML5 is:

• more descriptive pages, such as
  and

  
  

  logical page layouts

  
  

  beautiful typography with real world fonts

  
  

  working offline, wherever you are

  
  

  faster access to data

  
  

  location aware

  
  

  hardware accelerated

  
  

  securely multithreaded

  
  

  real time and bidirectional

  
  

  indistinguishable from native apps

  
  

  machine readable

  
  

  more expressive field types like email, number, and range

  
  

  finally BFF with video and audio

  
  

  ready for games (canvas, svg)

  
  

  most importantly, native to the browser

  
  

Fine, so that’s a lot of new capabilities and features. And there are certainly a lot of subtleties here and technical details to talk about. But that is another talk for another day (extra points for talking Google into having me back :)

That was a lot of cool features, but that’s looking at the trees. Let’s look at the forrest now. What is HTML5, really, and what does it do for me?

OK, so HTML5 is:

• pushing the web forward again
• an open set of technologies for the open web platform
• mostly here today, more coming with each browser release
• implemented first, standardized second
• tested in real world
• not handed down from on-high
• designed for ubiquity
• devices
• vendors
• form factors
• allowing developers to innovate again
• enabling a new class of fast, rich Applications
• on, and for, the Web

 That last point is probably the most important. HTML5 is built as a first class citizen on the Web, and in every way can capitalize on the composability, interoperability, and ubiquity of the Net. Remember, the Web is built with Links. And Links are expressed in HTML5.

The Web is an open ecosystem, and that means there will always be a delicate evolutionary dance between platforms. This is A Good Thing, and I believe a successful, global, accessible information system must allow for multiple systems to enter freely and participate. We believe that the future of the Web is HTML5, but aren’t looking to shut out other ideas. The most important thing, I think, is to continue to promote and encourage open access to the Web Platform and HTML5. From there, vendors compete on stability/speed/outreach, developers innovate, and users win.

We get asked a lot, “How do I approach HTML5? I have lots of apps now, some need to support IE6. How should I proceed?” I generally mention three, complementary strategies.

For legacy applications, take an evolutionary approach. For instance, you can finally render rounded corners with CSS3 (part of HTML5) without any of the traditional hacks. It’s perfectly OK if users with modern browsers see the beautiful rounded corners and users with legacy browsers see square corners.

For new applications, or for mobile applications, target HTML5 now. Mobile browsers are very modern and implement a lot of the HTML5 family of technologies. In fact, I recommend first looking at HTML5 as your mobile solution, before considering native applications. In many cases, you can write one application in HTML5 and serve it to all user agents, from phones, to laptops, to netbooks, to TVs.

Don’t be afraid to think of modern browsers like Chrome or Safari as a special class of users. For example, many companies will release an application only for iPhone. This is perfectly fine, and they made a calculated choice, “The iPhone has certain characteristics that will provide a wonderful user experience for our app.” There are plenty more Nokia phones out there, so why choose iPhone? Because, that is where the future is. This same decision process applies to HTML5 and modern browsers as well. Don’t be afraid to use channels like the Chrome Web Store to deliver modern, innovative applications to users of modern browsers.

In some cases, users can install Chrome Frame, a plugin for old versions of Internet Explorer. This turns on the Chrome engine inside of IE whenever your site advertises support for Chrome Frame.

In summary, HTML5 is, on a basic level, a family of next generation technologies built to enable rich, interactive, and fast web applications. However, at its core, HTML5 is about pushing the Web Platform forward and bringing innovation back to web development.

For those wanting to learn more, I want to point you to HTML5Rocks.com. This site, put together by my teammates, features articles, tutorials, and a code playground to experiment in. You’ll also find an interactive slide presentation full of sample code and demos, all written in HTML5.

I can also recommend Dive Into HTML5, by Mark Pilgrim. His book, freely available, is a good overview of the history, context, and capabilities for HTML5 features.

Thanks again to TechHui and Pacific New Media for putting on this conference, and to my panel-mates for letting me join in on the fun. Mahalo!