“View source” is a feature of all modern browsers that few people use, and that more probably wouldn’t miss if it disappeared. Still, viewing other people’s source code has played an undeniable role in the Web’s development, spurring a culture of creativity and sharing, and cementing values of openness and transparency in developer practices. However, as the Web becomes increasingly dedicated to social interaction and applications rather than static documents, the value of viewing machine-generated source code raises a critical question: will view source be relevant to the next generation of Web apps? And what might be lost if new Web applications refuse to include its functionality? This panel is sponsored by Mircosoft Silverlight.

• 5:37 PM: AndreG RESENTERS
  Estelle Weyl – UpTake Networks Inc
  Chris Wilson – Microsoft
  Aza Raskin – Mozilla/Songza
  Alex Russell – Google
  Michael Lucaccini – Archetype
• 5:38 PM: AndreG The web is going the same way as automobiles. As things get more complex it is getting harder and harder to pop open the hood and see/understand what is going on. Nowadays it is more like popping the hood with another hood under it.
• 5:38 PM: AndreG Tools like JQuery are great but they add a lot of complexity when a builder is trying to dig into why/how things work
• 5:39 PM: AndreG You can still figure things out but it is getting harder and harder
• 5:39 PM: AndreG View Source made a lot of sense when the web was pure text… this is no longer the case
• 5:41 PM: AndreG View source commoditizes the the core things you need… eg. no need to rebuild the wheel everytime
• 5:41 PM: AndreG View Source is really evolving into tools like Firebug. Cannot build a modern site without digging deeper into how and why things work.
• 5:42 PM: AndreG View Source has helped to keep the web open and has also forced security since people could dig in and see what was actually going on. Since you could view source and see what was going on it kept people on their toes.
• 5:43 PM: AndreG HTML is easily understood by many many humans and that is what has made View Source powerful.
• 5:45 PM: AndreG Growing pressure to optimize speed and performance it is critical to obfuscate JS. You may be able to see the code but it is so optimized it is not humanly readable… ever.
• 5:46 PM: AndreG Javascript is moving closer to Silverlight and Flash in that it is becoming a black box. Getting harder and harder to learn how to do stuff on the web.
• 5:47 PM: AndreG Just like learning how to tinker with a car it is now essential that people start by learning small pieces at a time and growing knowledge/skill. Takes a lot longer now than it did 10 years ago.
• 5:52 PM: AndreG Really important for newbies to be able to see the possibility of where they can go.
• 5:53 PM: AndreG The web has always been about learning from others. That is how we go so far so fast.
• 5:54 PM: AndreG Slippery slope of allowing people to see and access your code while still maintaining your Intellectual Property.
• 5:57 PM: AndreG There is a lot of really REALLY bad code out there and View Source also exposes it to newbies.
• 5:59 PM: AndreG There are lots of parts to the web that are not view source-able. Video is a big new area that hides tons of the inner workings. HTML5 is moving in the right direction but there is still a lot of work to be done.
• 5:59 PM: AndreG HTML5 is much more tweakable and therefore much more open and is fairly open, especially compared to Flash
• 6:00 PM: AndreG Hackability is the opposite side of the View Source arguement.
• 6:01 PM: AndreG Fiddling with tools like GreaseMonkey are critical to allowing power users to modify sites and services to work better for them
• 6:01 PM: AndreG Question – why are we pushing such complexity?
• 6:03 PM: AndreG Getting harder to learn how to use all of the technologies at an expert level across all browsers. Tools like JQuery really help with this consistency across everything.
• 6:05 PM: AndreG Semantic web relies heavily on text based tools to utilize code and content that is out there.
• 6:07 PM: AndreG Growing fear that we are increasing the barriers to entry. You can make things simpler but there is inherent complexity that has to be moved somewhere else (eg. server side vs client side)
• 6:09 PM: AndreG We need to make sure we are building and evolving the web in a way that keeps it in line with our true use cases.
• 6:14 PM: AndreG Mobile web has changed things again. HTML5 is being used and consumed but all of the new devices and frameworks are pushing way faster that developers can keep up with.
• 6:14 PM: AndreG There is no View Source on iPhone or Android
• 6:15 PM: AndreG Lack of an editor makes it even harder to develop on mobile
• 6:15 PM: AndreG Need to move past the traditional scenario of local editing on local desk… needs to evolve as quickly as mobile and new trends
• 6:16 PM: AndreG Relationship between the user and the browser is a very personal experience
• 6:16 PM: AndreG At the end of the day we need to protect users
• 6:18 PM: AndreG Web platform has been playing catchup to traditional computers and we are on the cusp of getting there. The challenge is that it needs to span across a ton of devices, screens, hardware, use cases.
• 6:18 PM: AndreG Developers should try to build sites that are as flexible as possible to work across all of these things.
• 6:21 PM: AndreG The open web has been a fast follower and as other technologies figure out what they want and need to be (eg. Flash/Silverlight) the web will follow closely. HTML5 can now do what Flash has done for a while. Web lets others figure it out and then steps in. New emerging tech will take the place of the old guys like Flash and the web tools will need to follow them down the road.
• 6:25 PM: AndreG Right now we are doing way too much in Javascript. For example CSS animations are way better for animation rather than doing it with JS.
• 6:25 PM: AndreG Must use the right tech for the job