Spongebob and Patrick think…

What is the web still good for? 🤔

A short stack exploring what the web could be on our now ubiquitous mobile devices.

22 cards, published on April 9, 2018.

Yiibu Llgo

by Bryan & Stephanie Rieger @yiibu

The web is for everyone.

link A woman's arms extend from her body across the landscape to hug someone.

Not just for everyone to consume…

link Rick holding Morty's eyes open.
link A doodle of skinny birds stacked on top of each other by Jelene Morris

…but to create.

But these days, creating the web is primarily the domain of professionals.

The #1 programmer excuse for legitimately slacking off: 'My code's compiling.

xkcd.com

Who use tools that are incredibly versatile, but have a high barrier to entry.

What do you do? I make tools that make tools that monitor code that deploys tools that build tools for deploying monitors for monitoring deployment of tools for… But what's that all for? Honestly, no idea. Porn, probably.

xkcd.com

(This is the last XKCD comic… we promise!)

Meanwhile, mass-market tools are made for everyone, but often strictly define what you can create.

"Twitter and Facebook are like AOL in the old pre-web days. They are run by companies who are committed to provide a safe experience. They make tradeoffs for that. Limited linking. No styles. Character limits… Think of them as Disney-like experiences."

-Dave Weiner

Picard face-palm

“The medium is the message” *

* Sigh…that old thing again. But it’s kinda true.

Ok.
Maybe a bit harsh.

These tools are incredibly useful, but the point isn’t to replace them. It’s to enable new types of creativity that can travel within and outside of them.

The trick, is to not get stuck in the past.

Bob Ross painting with the caption 'If you didn't have baby clouds, you wouldn't have big clouds.''

“Heralding 1999 as a golden age for the web is unbearably elitist. 250m people were online in total; mostly white and wealthy. 3.5bn today.”

- Ben Werdmuller

To work for everyone, today’s web must be…

A small pixelated cat chases a tiny butterfly and never catches it.

bite-sized

remixable

adaptable

link A roll of toilet paper endlessly tears off his face revealing another face.

useful

A tiny app courtesy of Tara Vancil.

forward thinking

and above all…

OPEN

link A pixelated unicorn runs freely above the clouds while endlessly farting a rainbow.

It’s time to begin enabling pathways to a stronger, and more open future for everyone on the web.

link A subway map of Boston showing the evolution of the routes and system over time.

The next step…
is up to all of us.

link A cute looking taco says hello in many of the world's languages.

“Whether the internet is an open space or a closed space, I am not going to predict. It is up to us. It all depends on what we do now. All the decisions we make now.”

— Tim Berners Lee