{"id":199,"date":"2003-10-31T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2003-10-31T19:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markbaker.ca\/wp\/?p=114"},"modified":"2003-10-31T15:46:00","modified_gmt":"2003-10-31T19:46:00","slug":"rewriting-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markbaker.ca\/blog\/2003\/10\/rewriting-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewriting the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along with most everybody else I imagine, I had a look over the\nAvalon\/WinFS stuff from Longhorn this week. Jon Udell\nsums up<\/a>\nmy position better than I could;<\/p>\n\n

\nYeah, “embrace and extend” was so much fun, I can hardly wait for “replace and defend.” Seriously, if the suite of standards now targeted for elimination from Microsoft’s actively-developed portfolio were a technological dead end, ripe for disruption, then we should all thank Microsoft for pulling the trigger. If, on the other hand, these standards are fundamentally sound, then it’s a time for what Clayton Christensen calls sustaining rather than disruptive advances. I believe the ecosystem needs sustaining more than disruption. Like Joe, I hope Microsoft’s bold move will mobilize the sustainers.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Yup, bingo. I was shocked when I realized\nthat they were completely reinventing the wheel here for no (really) good reason …\nexcept that somebody high up figured, as Jon says, that the Web was “ripe for\ndisruption”. As much as I dislike many of MS’s business practices, I have the\nutmost respect for the company and the people there. But man oh man, what\na stinker this stuff is. Remember\nBlackbird<\/a>? Did these\nguys forget that they own<\/em> the browser<\/em>? If they had done\nthis properly, they could have had the rest of the industry playing catch\nup to their Web extensions for the next five years or more. What an\nenormous gaff. Wow.<\/p>\n\n

Just as an example of some things that they could have extended\nthe Web with, consider these;<\/p>\n\n