Jonovono
commented
12 years ago Just saw this now. Thanks a lot for writing it out. I appreciate it!
I have no doubt that I am incorrect about some things - I am not fully knowledgeable in every subject - instead just some observations I have had over a little while and quick thoughts on how they possibly could be fixed. Before I pursued this any further I would definitely get much more familiar with current systems, and get a more concrete idea of my plans. I just wanted to put something together to maybe meet others interested in similar things and get new ideas!
About your questions. Yeah, new plugins would work. I was just thinking that a new browser could be interesting. It would perhaps be redesigned to understand more than just HTML and JS (perhaps a more abstract language that helps with semantics). Also it could bundle in the Tent server etc.
And I'm referring to if I want a site to work on all devices I need to make it in HTML and JS and then Objective-C and Java (if I want native apps). But true, learning a new language would be slower, unless it somehow could easily be ported to these (this is where HTML5 comes in I suppose!)
DNS not distributed because it's still companies that you send your requests too. So if someone can shut down them then the domain name is not accessible (wikileaks).
I don't necessarily think something is wrong with URIs. I am just wondering if there is a better way/cleaner way. Seems weird we still rely on and show those technical aspects. I know some problems that could be improved if another system is found. One would be buying domains.
But again, thanks for the comment. I'll definitely be looking into more things once I graduate.
Interesting topic indeed and many of these are concerns but my first advice is to see how you can better apply the current protocols instead of trying to invent a new wheel.
The current HTTP spec has already addressed many of these issues and that was 10 years ago, we have not yet utilized it completely as it was intended. Maybe it is because people didn't bother to read the spec, embrace it or were to eager to come up with their own ways of doing things that we have many issues today like, cookies, server sessions, RPC, webservices, etc. Bottom line, HTTP is still here while many of the others are rapidly fading. We are already rewriting HTTP and you are encouraged to help with this process, if you want to make a change do it where it counts in the specifications we all agree on and globally adopt.
Some issues you mention I am not understanding: You want a new browser but it sounds like it's just our current browser with plugins to carry a wallet and serve data. You complain about having to develop for different devices and this should be easier but you don't want to use html5 and javascript, how is learning a new language going to be easier? Why is DNS not distributed? I don't understand, it's probably the most distributed service in use. What is the problem with URIs? You don't have to use the www follow this link and see what happens to the domain http://www.jigsoft.co.za Even if the services pull data from us this data will be normalized and stored by them because the sources they pull from (your tent, my opensource data something) would be different so they can't pull i from the source. We can't all pull it from the source we can't distribute everything distributed like cache means duplicated so not your data anymore and we need this because of global scale. If you think spam is a problem now wait and see what happens to your data store if you think that all the apps must store their data by you and we all have to worry about security. Using a data provider is a similar problem than what we have now, how do you move your data to another provider? We have similar problems with opensource projects being tied into the separate forges. Everything is open and publicly available yet we can't pick up and go somewhere else, thought about that? Why do you have to go to facebook to share something? We have e-mail, xmmp, sms, mms, etc none of which requires you to go to FB, if you do not use these standards for your "alternative solution" it's not going to work unless we all use your alternative.
I wouldn't try and mix politics, economic and software development we're not going to solve any of those issues with code. You are correct semantic web is taking a long time, so help us reaching the end, how is reinventing it going to be faster. OAuth2 is the solution for access use it.
An example of using something ourselves vs letting the bluechips do it for us can clearly be seen in the PKI industry. SSL was born out of PGP with the only difference in PGP we trust those we know certificates are free everybody are CAs, SSL we trust the corporates and pay them to verify the certificates. If we haven't bothered to use PGP as it was intended and instead embraced the alternative how do you expect web 100% cool and local, which you are suggesting to ever be realized.
I suggest read the specifications, know them, then try and adapt your suggested changes to the existing infrastructure. You will be surprised to see that it was designed with your specific concerns addressed as it is done by the people. We never wanted Facebook, or we would've written the spec, you don't have to use it either. There are real problems that need solving but rewriting it is nat the answer.
I love your ambition just apply it in the right direction and you will do great. Keep the dream alive!