Coding In Paradise

[Update: did a slight update of the definition]

Here's another stab at a (short) Open Web definition. I put out a call for folks to help craft a one or two sentence concise definition of the Open Web awhile back. I'm not quite sure if we are there yet, but here is one based on boiling down alot of the feedback from many people. In the comments below give this a +1 or a -1 with a rewrite to make it better (and hopefully shorter). Expect to see more rewrites until we get this tight and have general agreement.

Open Web Definition:
"The Open Web is an interoperable, ubiquitous, and searchable network where everyone can share information, integrate, and innovate without having to ask for permission, accessible through powerful and universal clients."

Here is a litmus test definition we can apply when wondering whether something is part of the Open Web and actions to take.

Open Web Litmus Test

Does it have:

• Composability - The ability to innovate, link, contribute, search, and integrate without red tape, fear of a lawsuit, or having to ask "please?"
• Interoperability - The ability for developers to interoperate without having to know of each others existence
• Ubiquity - The ubiquity of a set of open technologies and services agreed upon by the widest possible community
• Universal Client - Empowering and evolving the browser and web technologies as a universal client

+1 or -1 on this litmus test? If you give it a -1, try to not have the bullet points expand; we want this to be a concise list out of which other things can fall out, not a laundry list.

The goal is to get something as tight as the Open Source definition and work of the Open Source Initiative. We also want to have a short litmus test of characteristics that can help to determine both whether something is part of the Open Web as well as to guide actions and results to make it a reality.

Thanks to everyone who helped either by directly answering or by blogging about what the Open Web is in general:

Jeff Bailey, Jeff Fisher, Kevin Marks, Dion Almaer, DeWitt Clinton, Anthony LaForge, Jason Chen, Jason Robbins, Christopher Keene, Jeffrey S Miller, W3C, Jeff Scudder, Justin Mattson, Talin, Logan Hanks, Tim O'Reilly, Rod Chavez, Anthony LaForge, Glen Lipka, Ray Cromwell, Chris Dent, Joseph, booch, Tom Trenka, Keif, Alex Russell, polterguy, mojave, ialexi, Joe Walker, David Eaves, Mark Pilgrim, Kevin Mullins, Simon Willison, Sumit Chandel, and many more.

As an aside, I liked Jeff Fisher's tongue-in-cheek definition of the Open Web:

Jeff Fisher: "The open web is the great mystery at the heart of all of us"

Labels: definition, open web