Re: Definition of the Public Web

On 6/27/2013 12:22 PM, Appelquist Daniel (UK) wrote:
>  And if this group is going to
> try to focus its attention on the public Web then maybe we would benefit
> from having a shared definition of this term?

I would have thought that the TAG wants to understand the considerable 
synergies among the "public Web" and the many other contexts in which Web 
technologies are used.

First of all, information from non-public systems is often published to the 
Web or sourced from the Web, processes which are greatly facilitated if 
Web-compatible datatypes, formats and languages (e.g. Javascript, CSS) are 
used internally as well as externally. Public Web pages are linked from a 
wide variety of less public contexts including private intranets, Word and 
PDF documents that might be on USB keys or private networks), etc. 
Metcalfe's law teaches us that all of this adds to the value of the public 
Web and to the value of the technologies used to build it. It's a really 
important design goal for URIs that they be embeddable in proprietary 
containers.

Furthermore, there are synergies relating to training and education, 
investment in software development (some of the bills for Apache or 
Ruby/Rails enhancement are likely paid or indirectly justified by the use 
of those systems behind the firewall as well as outside.)

I that that TAG will not restrict its focus just to the public Web, but 
rather will focus on understanding the synergies and conflicts arising from 
use of Web technologies in a variety of other contexts too. Maybe or maybe 
not having a crisp definition for the "public Web" is a useful step; I'm 
not sure.

Noah

Received on Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:53:13 UTC