Michael Carter

Michael has always been driven to understand what makes scalable systems tick, particularly real-time, browser-facing systems. He is especially focused on standardizing a protocol for Comet (HTTP Push) to ensure that all developers can benefit from his research on Comet and real-time Web infrastructures.

Michael spends his time consulting, js.io, csp, and organizing Silicon Valley-based JavaScript interests groups (http://javascript.meetup.com/9/ & http://www.meetup.com/bayjax/ )

Beginning in 2006, Michael founded and led the development of Orbited, the Open Source Comet daemon, for two years. In his work with Orbited he has made significant advances not only in backporting future standards to today's browsers, but also in experimenting with various server architectures for real-time applications. Much of his involvement with the project has centered on creating scalable Comet technology and providing solid integration points with today's synchronous, request/response-based technologies.

Michael frequently speaks at conferences, participates in drafting standards, and interacts closely with Open Source communities. His recent speaking engagements include OSCON, Pycon, and AjaxExperience. Michael is also an active CometDaily blogger where he has written several articles on topics related to scaling Comet and Web frameworks.

Presentation: "Painlessly Porting Desktop Network Apps to the Browser"

Track: Browser as a Platform

Time: Wednesday 13:45 - 14:45

Location: Olympic

Abstract: Porting a network client from the desktop to the browser usually requires rewriting both the server and the client because of the mismatch between desktop and browser network stacks. Most desktop network applications communicate with a server that speaks a non-HTTP protocol over TCP, whereas rich web applications are only able to use HTTP, usually via XMLHttpRequest. This sessions demonstrates an exciting alternative: Orbited, the highly scalable Comet server, and js.io can be used with ease to allow browsers to communicate over non-HTTP protocols based on TCP, without depending on any browser plugins. This session uses examples, best practices, and theory to teach you how to implement real-time web applications that integrate seamlessly with traditional network services.