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Mozilla plans to standardise HTML5 telephony
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Mozilla has introduced an application programmable interface (API) that it hopes will bring basic telephony to HTML5.
Mozilla announced its WebAPI with the aim of enabling basic HTML5 telephony functions within three to six months. The development outfit said that WebAPI is an attempt to bridge the gap between open web standards and native APIs and should work across all web browsers, irrespective of the operating system.
Robert Nyman, a technical evangelist for Mozilla, outlined some of the functions of the upcoming WebAPI, including a dialer, address book, SMS, camera, gallery, games and maps. He went onto say, "Security is a very important factor here, and it will be a mix of existing security measurements (e.g. asking the user for permission, like Geolocation) or coming up with new alternatives to ensure this."
Once Mozilla and the community have done design and implementation it will be submitted to W3C for standardisation. Nyman also said that Mozilla is hiring several full time engineers to work on WebAPI.
Standardisation of telephony interfaces like the existing SIP standard is something that firms such as Skype have been trying to avoid. While it is great for the user, it robs those companies of control, the very thing they need to sell adverts and eventually make money.
However should Mozilla's WebAPI succeed it will be a triumph of usability over proprietary commercialism. µ
Tags: Software
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I think my subject line says it all:
This will be a Security & Compatibility Nightmare.
The net really needs something similar for IPTV.
Think about it - instead of having to subscribe to Hulu, Netflix or some other content aggregator, along with every TV company's website doing their own separate thing, we should be able to simply add whatever IPTV sites/channels we like into our browser directly and go to town.
This way we don't have to worry about whether our device supports this service or that service. Our device has its own browser, which connects to the site in a standard way, so we can use whatever interface we like to watch stuff.
Much easier to integrate one standard protocol into an IP-based TV set than Hulu, Netflix, Flash, Silverlight, etc. Could also be made to recognize one or more "channels" per site so we can flick through the old fashioned way.
The time of gatekeepers (cable companies) in television is already passing, why should we replace them with online equivalents? Content creators can then compete fairly for advertising giving both the traditional media companies and joe blow in his basement with a camera their fair shot.