The death of REST?

How’s that for a topic? I’m packing up to attend this weekend’s @Realtimeconf and WebRTC Camp in Portland, Oregon. With topics like, “Fire flies, ants and bees! How Mother Nature builds effective, fault tolerant, distributed systems“, I’m likely lost right at the title. I may have to inhale this weekend.

Most technologies evolve into their own solar systems. A small group of clickish planets, we all know everyone, we argue amongst our selves and often live our entire lives without leaving the planet. The notion of other solar systems seems foreign, not something we need to worry about, it’s too far away. Random UFO sightings are just that random.

Telecom is quickly becoming a black hole. This solar system is disappearing. It’s hard to tell, because light is no longer reflecting back out of it. It must still be there though, things do seem to go in there.

The agenda for the WebRTC Camp is equally refreshing. With the introduction of WebRTC, a new solar system is born. One that has been missing from telecom since the 1970’s. Namely – a focus on application. A focus on what you’re trying to accomplish versus the current focus on how you’re going to do it.

As Dean Bubley blasted me, the era of federation may be over. Too many cycles were consumed in telecom on interop with the result (big surprise) being the lowest common denominator  the winner. Innovation not even in consideration.

WebRTC along with other communication technologies will march on in 2014. A new solar system being born. Innovation and application back to the forefront.