Re: Apps: the web is the platform (evangelism needed!)

[Mark Giffin]

0+de...@lists.mozilla.org because MDN writers are on that list.

Great point Kumar. I agree that it should be made more clear that Open
Web Apps are intended to be standardized and to become part of "the web."

I can't speak for marketing-type writing but I work on the Open Web Apps
developer docs and I have noticed that it is not really clear in much of
the docs where Mozilla ends and standards begin. Like which parts of the
nuts and bolts of OWA are intended to eventually be standardized, where
Firefox comes in and so on. I have been thinking about how to make this
clear throughout the developer docs, or at least in a couple visible
locations.

I want to at least identify the parts of OWA that are intended to be
standardized at some point. I'm interested in feedback on my attempt below.

Intended eventual standards:
- OWA manifest https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps/Manifest
- OWA API (mozApps API)
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps/Apps_JavaScript_API
- Web APIs to access things like phone, geolocation, etc. These are
numerous and messy to explain the status of.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI, http://arewemobileyet.com/
- Mozilla Marketplace, I have heard that the idea is to export this
also, if not standardize it.
- payments?
- identity? (Persona/BrowserID)
- FirefoxOS?
- what else?

And then maybe a list of related standards or proposed or eventual
standards that are related to OWA but Mozilla is not driving them.

I'm thinking that an MDN article is needed with a title like "Open Web
Apps and Web standards". I could probably steal a lot from your nice
blog post Kumar. And maybe some indication on Apps doc pages that they
are "non-standard" or "intended standard" or whatever.

Mark Giffin

On 9/14/2012 9:34 AM, Kumar McMillan wrote:
> On a separate thread, Dees posted this recent note from Paul Irish:https://plus.google.com/113127438179392830442/posts/fR3iiuN4kEF
> It is a passionate call to action: apps are real and the web is in urgent danger. I could not agree more. When I read it I felt motivated to evangelize but then I read this in one of the top comments and felt even more motivated:
>
> "There's the Chrome App Store, which is Chrome-specific ... there's Mozilla Marketplace, which is gratuitously Mozilla-specific …"
>
> I know this person is just misinformed but we absolutely *must* communicate that Mozilla is building an open apps platform. We're not building a Mozilla specific platform.
>
> The recent press on Firefox OS has been great. The press really seems to understand that we're trying to disrupt the mobile space with a new device. I've seen some passionate blog posts from developers too. However, I do not see people communicating exactly how our apps are fully portable to any HTML5 compliant device. It's simple: some app seller issues a receipt and the receipt is cryptographically verifiable. It's not tied to Mozilla's marketplace. We will be one marketplace out of many and the Firefox OS phone will be one compliant device out of many.
>
> So here you go:https://blog.mozilla.org/webdev/2012/09/14/apps-the-web-is-the-platform/
>
> If there are any corrections needed, please let me know.
>
>
> -Kumar
> _______________________________________________
> dev-webapps mailing list
> dev-w...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-webapps
>

[Marc-Aurèle DARCHE]

Hello,

Le 19/09/2012 22:41, Mark Giffin a �crit :

I could start this "Open Web Apps and Web standards" article as part of
the current MDN doc sprint
https://wiki.mozilla.org/MDN/Doc_Sprints/MDN/Doc_sprints/2012September
if no-one objects.

Any advise on the article position in MDN or anything is very welcome.

Cheers,

--
Marc-Aur�le DARCHE https://developer.mozilla.org/User:madarche
AFUL http://aful.org/
Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Logiciels Libres
French speaking Libre Software Users' Association

[Mark Giffin]

Marc-Aurèle,

Please do start this article!

Mark

On 9/28/2012 3:53 AM, Marc-Aurèle DARCHE wrote:
> Hello,
>

[Marc-Aurèle DARCHE]

Hello all,

Le 28/09/2012 22:57, Mark Giffin a écrit :
>
> Please do start this article!
>

Here it is:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Open_Web_apps_and_Web_standards

This article borrows lots of content from
https://blog.mozilla.org/webdev/2012/09/14/apps-the-web-is-the-platform/
but pays due credits to it. I hope it's alright. Kumar, please, do not
hesitate to complain or send suggestions.

Cheers,

PS :
Note that I did a mistake when I created the page, and that the page
will be relocated at
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Apps/Open_Web_apps_and_Web_standards
when possible (depends on a Kuma bug soon to be fixed).

--
Marc-Aurèle DARCHE https://developer.mozilla.org/User:madarche

[Mark Giffin]

This is great, Marc-Aurèle! Thanks for starting it! I think you have
"thrown a net over it" and with some tweaking it should be pretty
useful. One thing I am doing is carefully looking over the payments
information and trying to make it as accurate as possible. There are a
few other things that should probably be done also. I will work on it as
I get the time. And of course anyone else is free to work on it also.

Thanks again!!!

Mark

[Kumar McMillan]

On Oct 1, 2012, at 4:29 PM, Mark Giffin wrote:

> This is great, Marc-Aurèle! Thanks for starting it! I think you have "thrown a net over it" and with some tweaking it should be pretty useful. One thing I am doing is carefully looking over the payments information and trying to make it as accurate as possible. There are a few other things that should probably be done also. I will work on it as I get the time. And of course anyone else is free to work on it also.

Agreed! Thanks Marc A for putting this page together. As any MDN specialist will say, "blogs are not places for documentation" :) so I'm glad that you folded my rant into something more useful and into a more of referential structure. I can go through and also do some tweaks when Mark G is done. For example, I think there are a few items to add to the list of intended eventual standards.

Kumar