The term HTML5 now refers to the much-hyped kitchen sink of the web. It covers *everything* including things not officially part of the HTML5 specification. Yet "HTML5" is now the catch phrase to describe the new wave of platform competition on the web, and browser vendors vie to outdo each other on benchmark tests touting compliance and performance. Every major browser vendor -- Apple, Opera, IE, Chrome, and Firefox -- will have a significant browser release by SxSW 2011. Microsoft's recent IE9 press event suggests that they are "all in for HTML5." So if all of us browser vendors are "all in" for HTML5, what does this mean for web developers? And what's up with the dirty marketing buzz around tests and demo pages? This panel will expose the areas where we browser vendors cooperate as well as compete, and will push on the painful spots where we seem to disagree. We'll bring every major browser vendor to the table, and talk about open video on the web (and video codecs), what this all means to Flash, APIs (including contentious ones, like databases), CSS (including once hot areas like fonts) graphics, SVG vs. Canvas, WebGL, Device APIs, and security. This browser wars panel will be less like Inside Baseball, and more about the practical issues confronting web developers today. We'll poke at the raw spots that browser vendors need to discuss. As always, audience participation will account for a substantial chunk of time.
Alex Russell is a software engineer at Google, working on Chrome and Chrome Frame. Prior to joining Google he contributed to the development of the Dojo Toolkit. He's fighting IE 6 so you don't have to.
Arun worked for Netscape when the Mozilla project was still in its infancy, and served as Netscape's Technology Evangelist during the heyday of the first browser wars. During a time when proprietary technology could have overrun the open web, technology evangelism was early stage advocacy for open standards.
After Netscape was dissolved, he stayed on with AOL, working for the Technology Strategy group and building personalization applications on the web. He served on the W3C's Advisory Board for three years, continuing web standards advocacy at AOL. In 2008 he went back to web browsers, joining Mozilla as Standards Evangelist and developer relations resource. He served as Chair of the WebGL working group as part of the Khronos Consortium (bringing hardware accelerated 3D graphics to the web) and continues to work on other W3C specifications.
Arun now lives in New York City, working on personal projects.
Brendan Eich is CTO of Mozilla and widely recognized for his enduring contributions to the Internet revolution. In 1995, Eich invented JavaScript (ECMAScript), the Internet's most widely used programming language. He also co-founded the mozilla.org project in 1998, serving as chief architect. Eich helped launch the award winning Firefox Web browser in November 2004 and Thunderbird e-mail client in December 2004. Today, Eich's central focus is guiding the future technical work to keep Mozilla vital and competitive. In the greater Web community, Eich remains dedicated to driving innovation in Internet technology with his work in JavaScript and with the Mozilla platform. In August 2005, Eich became CTO of Mozilla. He has also been a board member of the Mozilla Foundation since its inception in 2003. He holds a bachelor of science in math and computer science from Santa Clara University and a master of science in computer science from the University of Illinois. Eich and his wife have four children.
John has standards.
Lars Erik has led the development of Opera's cross-platform browser engine, Presto, since 2001. Prior to joining Opera he worked for Netscape in Europe. Lars Erik is also currently chairing the W3C Geolocation working group.
