I am running for the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) this year. In this blog post, I will outline my technological background and share the three key contributions I would like to make if I am elected to the TAG in more detail.
A bit about me
I started using the web in 1997 with Netscape Communicator 4.0 and began creating my own websites in 2003 using Microsoft FrontPage XP. Web Engineering was my favorite class at university. After completing my bachelor’s degree in 2014, I went to work for Thinktecture, a company that embraced the web as an application platform early on. This was made possible by the advancements of HTML5 and its related specifications.
Over the past decade, I’ve helped dozens of software development teams across various industries to build innovative web applications that push the boundaries of the web platform to its limits. I gave Web Engineering lectures to the next generation of web developers and wrote a book. I wrote articles for developer magazines, contributed patches to all major browser engines, co-organized community conferences, served as a track chair for conferences and training events, maintained some TypeScript definitions for experimental web platform APIs, reviewed explainers, and co-edited the Web Application Manifest specification.
Martina Kraus, Woman Techmakers Karlsruhe, offered this testimonial:
Christian is deeply involved in the community, always willing to help, and wants to have the best future for web applications.
Let’s discuss the future of web applications together.
In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards web applications, as seen with all Thinktecture clients moving their applications from native platforms to the web. Users first experienced Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini through browsers—long before their native clients became available. Web apps are now offline-capable, push-enabled, and installable on all relevant operating systems. However, the situation looks different for more advanced capabilities like file system access or background synchronization, covered by the charter of the WebApps Working Group. Given the platform’s fragmentation regarding those capabilities, developers are unsure how to implement use cases that rely on them.
I would like to resume the Powerful Web Platform Task Force, a TAG effort announced at TPAC 2023, to discuss and explore powerful web capabilities. I want to bring developers and vendors together, showcase what developers are building behind enterprise walls, and build cross-browser consensus on adding more powerful capabilities to the web.
Developers are asking for more advanced capabilities, yet we must prioritize the security and privacy of our users. More powerful but packaged web apps, such as those built with Electron, unnecessarily consume valuable resources by launching additional browser processes, while most of the time, a browser is already running on the system. Moreover, writing Web Platform Tests for APIs involving native interactions poses significant challenges. It would be great if we could improve this situation together.
Let’s bring Generative AI to the web.
Generative AI has already become an essential building block of software architecture. AI models can be used to implement use cases where rule-based algorithms reach their limits. Operating systems and devices now ship on-device AI models. Apple Intelligence is available in current macOS, iOS, and iPadOS releases, and Google is rolling out Gemini Nano to high-end Android devices.
I want to ensure that the web has solutions for the most significant shift in software architecture in a long time: We need low-level interfaces, such as WebGPU and WebNN, to run computations required by custom neural networks as efficient as possible—right on the user’s device. We also need high-level interfaces, such as the Prompt API, which is currently being explored as a part of Chromium’s Built-in AI initiative and about to be adopted by the Web Machine Learning Community Group (WebML CG), to make on-device models already present on the device accessible to the web.
On-device computation is crucial for the secure and privacy-preserving use of Generative AI. However, we must remain mindful of the associated limitations and implications, including hallucinations, high energy consumption, and copyright concerns.
Let’s reach out to developers again.
The TAG should advocate for developer interests. It previously hosted developer events such as the Extensible Web Summit. COVID-19 halted those efforts, and the last W3C Developer Meetup happened during TPAC 2022 in Vancouver.
I would like to revive developer meetups, particularly during events like TPAC, to directly engage with web developers and incorporate their feedback into standardization efforts.
I offer my experience in organizing community conferences to bring developer meetings back. Ideally, we would host these meetups in collaboration with local user groups to attract the local web developer community. The speakers should include not only TPAC attendees but also local developers.
Ranjit Bhosale, software engineer, offered this testimonial:
Christian has deep understanding of modern web technologies and clear vision for designing robust, scalable web solutions. His invaluable mentorship has been fundamental in transforming my development journey.
Conclusion
My candidacy for the W3C Technical Architecture Group is driven by a deep commitment to advancing the web as a powerful and inclusive platform. I am eager to bring my experience and passion to the TAG to turn these visions into reality. I would be honored to be a part of the team that shapes the future of the web.
