Re: [apps-discuss] IETF technical plenary: the end of application protocols

[Dave Cridland <[e-mail]>]

On Thu Mar 24 14:43:01 2011, Scott Brim wrote:
> I believe it was in Munich, oh so many years ago, that Dave Clark  
> said
> "architect the inevitable".  Yes we preserve the model of  
> peer-to-peer
> symmetric communications.  We know it and other principles are
> fundamental necessities for future adaptability.  At the same time  
> we
> engineer all sorts of stuff that is just subsets, that does not  
> follow
> our fundamental principles completely, because it meets users' needs
> right now.

There is an immense distinction between pragmatically bending rules  
in the short term whilst clearly maintaining a single overriding  
architectural vision to aspire to, and throwing away years of  
architectural choices because a handful of very large near-monopolies  
would find it more convenient if they had total control over every  
aspect of the user's experience.

On the subject of the thriving ecosystem of third-party apps clinging  
on for dear life to these rumbling giants hoping to compete by  
pretending that an "API" under the sole control of a single entity  
is, somehow, equivalent to a viable open standard - as Hannes et al  
are trying to persuade us - there is some interesting reading which  
was kindly produced a couple of weeks ago:

http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_thread/thread/c82cd59c7a87216a?pli=1

Anyone present who doesn't choke at the "Twitter is a network" line  
should really wonder what they're doing here.

Dave.
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