Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The internet is modular

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article makes two major points. The first is, as suggested by the title, that "one of the key architectural principles of the internet is modularity," that is, "system architects decompose the system in a way that minimizes dependencies among components." So you can update incrementally, replacing individual components with improved components that do the same job. The second point, though, is that "the modular boundaries of the web were drawn for networked documents, with content split into 'pages', and browser engines designed to lay out and scroll text." And these modular boundaries are just the wrong sort of boundaries for apps. Enter Mighty, a browser streamed entirely from the web (not everyone is a fan). This could be the ultimate in the black box internet, or it could be a new paradigm. Either way, when the beta becomes available, I'll be on it.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024 10:54 a.m.

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