The Present and Future of the Web Platform

Location:

Grand Ballroom - Salon A/B/C/D

Abstract:

In this talk I will survey interesting developments in the Web platform, analyze emergent trends, and make some predictions. I'll cover:

The evolution of web technologies and APIs in the github era.

JavaScript in the Harmony era:

as the ubiquitous, high-level web programming language;

as safe assembly language for compilers such as Emscripten.

HTML, CSS, and DOM beyond "HTML5" into the version-free future.

Device, System, and Web APIs for portable, power web apps.

WebRTC for real-time n-way video, audio, and data communications.

Better network protocols, fewer round trips, more piggybacking.

Privacy, security, and user agency in the mobile+cloud era.

I will demonstrate some of these points with live code demos.

Brendan Eich

Brendan Eich is CTO and SVP of Engineering for Mozilla, and widely recognized for his enduring contributions to the Internet revolution. In 1995, Eich invented JavaScript (ECMAScript), the Internet’s most widely used programming language. He co-founded the mozilla.org project in 1998, serving as chief architect, and has been a board member of the Mozilla Foundation since its inception in 2003. Brendan helped launch the award-winning Firefox Web browser in November 2004 and Thunderbird e-mail client in December 2004. In August 2005, Brendan became CTO of Mozilla, and today also manages the product and platform engineering teams. His central focus is guiding the future technical work to keep Mozilla vital and competitive. In the greater Web community, Brendan remains dedicated to driving innovation in Internet technology with his work in JavaScript and with the Mozilla platform. Brendan holds a bachelor of science in math and computer science from Santa Clara University and a master of science in computer science from the University of Illinois. He and his wife have five children.