Hasta La Gadget!

Webinos is a new project funded by the European Union that aims to create an open source platform that will “enable web
applications and services to be used and shared consistently and
securely over a broad spectrum of converged and connected devices,
including mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car units.“

The three-year, 14-million-euro project hopes to create a new open source, web-based platform that would allow the same apps on your smart phone to transition and translate to your car, to your PC, and to your TV, etc. Basically a universal OS. The motto: “A Single Service for Every Device.” The project has several industry players involved including Samsung, Sony
Ericsson, and BMW, along with several of Europe’s top research universities.

On the surface, a universal platform has several advantages. One being adding an added level of ease for consumers and developers who would not longer have to maneuver in an entirely new system with each new breed of gizmo.

The official webinos site makes the additional argument that a universal OS will help protect privacy by giving users and developers a single system to defend and codify. One major problem with that is that a universal platform would also give hackers and other nefarious players only one system to master. And the bad guys are almost always one step ahead of the good guys in the tech arms race.

As it stands now, if one platform becomes compromised, the whole internet won’t become infected. Imagine a room full of fishbowls. If someone drops poison in one of the fishbowl, the contaminant won’t spread to any other fishbowls. However, if there is one single gigantic pool and a virus is released, the entire system may become contaminated.

For an immediate example, we only need look to yesterday’s Twitter attack. The vulnerability stemmed from an update in Twitter’s new web display. But it only affected visitors to twitter.com. If you were to check your Twitter stream via a third party application, there was no problem. It’s the same way a single virus can infect thousands of PCs, but leave Apple computers unscathed. Or if hackers are able to infiltrate a vulnerability in one browser, you are able to switch programs to surf safely until a patch is developed. The heterogeneity of the web is what protects it.

It’s also hard to not conclude that the whole webinos project is a means
to develop a European-wide platform to compete with the Googles, Apples,
and Microsofts of the world–private American corporations that the EU
has no direct control over.

The web is a vibrant marketplace that has never been hindered by competition and disorganization. Rather it thrives in the chaos. There’s no real pressing need for one unified order. This seems to be another case of nationalism trumping the needs of the future web.