Earlier today, at OSCON, David Recordon announced the creation of the Open Web Foundation. In an effort not to make the same mistakes that were made with certain :cough:Microsoft:cough:Apple:cough: operation systems, the Open Web Foundation has been established to "create a home for community-driven specifications" in regards the web and the way we use it. As I reviewed the presentation, a particular statement stood out above everything else I read. That statement was this:

"view source matters"

On the web, everything is at your fingertips. If you see something cool, you are able to look under the hood at what is happening onscreen. Sure there is processing that may take place in the background, but if you like the way something is displayed you can get an idea of how it was accomplished. You are then able to use that source code and modify it to fit your needs. This "open-ness" is what pushes the limits of technology to make things better and more efficient.

With all the information the web provides, it is vital to make this information available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. This in my opinion is where an open web can really thrive. We need to move away from proprietary technologies and into a format that can be read by any device capable of connecting to "The Network". As an iPhone owner, there's nothing more frustrating trying to view a website with Flash on it. Who's at fault? Apple or Adobe?

We NEED standards to follow for these types of technologies and they need not be hardware specific. Thanks to other organizations some of these standards are well underway and have been put into place (i.e. the

In the end, I am of the opinion that it is time to move past the non-semantic and non-standardized web and into one with meaning. I'm looking forward to watching the progress of the Open Web Foundation and the steps it takes to give us a truly "open web". In the meantime, I'll keep hoping that a better tomorrow, and an open web, is right around the corner.