Back to the Future of the Web, What Mattered Most

Hard to believe, but the Web is still young. A lot has happened in the past ten years. So much so that it's hard to predict where it will take us. The folks at Vitamin, an online magazine dedicated to the future of the Web industry, asked sixteen top designers, developers and Web entrepreneurs to go Back to the Future of the Web and predict what will be looked back on as important to the Web ten years from now.

From Greg Storey of Airbag Industries to Jeffrey Kalmikoff of SkinnyCorp to Michael McDerment of Freshbooks, the verdicts ranged from user-generated content to the mobile Web to the fads of Web 2.0. Many agreed “getting more people involved with publishing, creating, and doing — not just consuming — has made the web and the world a place where people are more empowered to be creative, find their passion and make a living doing the things they most enjoy.”

Others think that application programming interfaces (APIs) and connections between various applications are a turning point, indicating that “the ability to share resources programmatically through Microformats, RSS, and APIs has not only made life richer for programmers and entrepreneurs, but for the end user as well.”

Though it's hard to know exactly what will be looked back upon as our definitive moments of the Web, it's a fun question to ponder.

Our toolbox may be full of new applications and integral components that are considered indispensable and necessary to today's wired world, but what is most important is stay active in our explorations.

Perhaps the point that highlights this best comes from designer, thinker and writer Derek Powazek. He is convinced that the way the Web interacts with print will be most important. Powazek says, “the web will not replace print any more than television replaced radio. It will, instead, change it into something better. The children of the internet, raised on digital efficiencies and open access, are going to reinvent the printed page.”

The future of the Web doesn't lie in the way that it replaces other media, but instead in how it interacts with them, shifts their composition and value, and lest we forget, how it compliments them.

So what do you think? Let us know what we will look back upon and consider to be the historical reference points in our current era of the Web.

Back to the Future of the Web, What Mattered Most

Hard to believe, but the Web is still young. A lot has happened in the past ten years. So much so that it's hard to predict where it will take us. The folks at Vitamin, an online magazine dedicated to the future of the Web industry, asked sixteen top designers, developers and Web entrepreneurs to go Back to the Future of the Web and predict what will be looked back on as important to the Web ten years from now.

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