Emerging Issues: HTML 5.0 vs Adobe Flash
SAF believes that standards development for the Internet are of strategic importance. Today’s and tomorrow’s websites are becoming multi-dimensional, complexly layered, and highly interactive. Many organizations throughout the world depend on their websites for their existence.
Access to the web is quickly becoming ubiquitous. Standards are necessary so that people, programs, and smart devices can interact. When setting standards, there are winners and losers, so standard development and adoption is inherently political. In general, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops these standards in a consensus process among member companies.
Right now there is an open conflict over standards for the current and next generation websites. Adobe Flash, a software platform for animation, video, and websites is the de facto standard by its wide use. However, Flash is a proprietary product owned and sold by Adobe.
W3C is in the process of finalizing an HTML 5.0 standard. HTML (hyper text markup language) is the computer code that enables the web to work. The new standard will significantly expand HTML capabilities including animation and video.
Apple has decided to take a very active role against Adobe. Quite simply, Apple has by-passed Flash and supports HTML 5.0. Iphone and Ipad users need work-arounds to load and visit Flash based sites. Other companies have decided to let the market sort the issues out and currently support Flash and the current version of HTML. The spill over is that those who own and operate websites need to consider their options as they move forward.
Though the core issues of the Flash/HTML 5.0 are technological, there are several broader issues involved in the debate including: The difference between official standards and de facto standards (most popular); The inherent conflict of closed systems/software with the open and collaborative nature of the web; and the question of how to create quality assurance and control on the web.
These questions and others, are fundamental to how the Internet evolves. How W3C or the market answers will impact organizations throughout the world.