Inside Colin's Head

One day in the not-too-distant future, the Internet will be much faster than it is today and resilient connections will become so ubiquitous that Internet outages will be treated like electricity outages.

In today's world of always designing for transition in technology, developers are forced to deal with old browsers, slow connections, offline access, cross-device incompatibilities, installation complexities, search engine optimizations, accessibility guidelines for users with disabilities, decisions on requiring cookies/JavaScript/etc., and dealing with the archaic world of email (design, delivery, etc.). Hell, file uploads over the web are still ridiculously clunky in most browsers.

Developer paradise is a world where the only hard stuff is *gasp* actually building the product. Browsers should understand websites and provide tools for disabled users. Native applications should be run and delivered via web technologies and have access to device APIs. Installations should be a thing of the past, at least in the eyes of customers and product developers. All software should be able to be built once and easily ported to different form factors.

Internet access is almost exactly analogous to road access. It should be free to everyone because it is a foundation on which we build commerce, social interactions, etc. No one should be able to censor or throttle Internet traffic. That'll surely be an adjustment for some companies and governments, but a free Internet is the strongest path towards global peace.

When the big Internet pipe arrives, everything we know about computing will be drastically improved. We'll finally be able to reach a world where software really does "just work." Install CDs will be a thing of the past -- everything, including big bundles like Starcraft II will run directly from the Internet. Piracy will be much easier to fight while at the same time providing consumers with more options and fairer policies. Computers and devices will be able to be much simpler and dedicate more resources to managing the user experience instead of exhaustively trying to support every ancient API and peripheral.

Of course this comes with new issues (security topping that list), but I don't see a truly sustainable computing world happening any other way.

Google Chrome OS, Android, and iOS are all steps in this direction, but we have a long way to go.

The App Store, opponents of net neutrality, and governments requiring encryption keys for private, electronic communications are really hurting this potential.