The Open Web and What it Actually Means
Justin Hunter
When I was in seventh grade, I first took a computers class. This was very basic, but the web was still new, still fresh and exciting. I remember pulling up the Yahoo! homepage and clicking the view source link. I copied the entire source, put it in a text editor, change the logo and the site name to be Justin!, then I saved it as an index.html file. I opened that file, and to my amazement, the browser opened and my own cloned version of Yahoo was displayed.
This is the open web.
Later, when I launched my first non-angelfire website, I used an FTP server to upload my folder of HTML, images, and CSS. That folder was then served by a web server to the rest of the world. When the web server company I used no longer met my needs, I used FTP again to upload to a different server.
This is the open web.
Much later, when I was building a sports blogging business, I built my content engine around Blogger. Blogger/Blogspot was not open. It allowed you to modifed the HTML in the context of their hosted user interface. I wanted more control and freedom, so I moved everything to WordPress and hosted it on a hosting provider dedicated to WordPress. WordPress is open source and portable. I had control over the code, the content, and the hosting location.
This is the open web.
I was working at an EdTech startup that partnered with MIT’s Media Lab to issue digital credentials on the blockchain. The idea was to ensure that credentials could live on even if an institution folded or no longer had access to old registrar records.
This is the open web.
I began working at Pinata, the top IPFS pinning service provider. I had learned about IPFS years before I worked at Pinata, and I became obsessed with the idea that files could be open and portable, easily moved across services and applications.
This is the open web.
I started Orbiter with Steve because we wanted websites that were simple with no vendor lock-in. The web has grown too complex, and hosting simple websites and web apps requires entirely too much work and creates too much frustration. All while being increasingly closed off behind walled gardens. Orbiter was built to change that. Everything is open source. Every site is open, auditable, and accessible without any of Orbiter’s application logic. Someone can move from Orbiter to somewhere else without needing to contact us. Someone can index all the sites deployed using Orbiter and build incredible things like a hybrid of Stubleupon and the Wayback Machine.
This is the open web.
This is all anecdotal, of course. And the specific definition of the open web will vary person to person. However, the underlying theme is that the web should give you freedom. That means access, portability, and flexibility. There are some things it does not mean, though.
The open web is not free.
I often see and hear people talk about decentralization and open source software as if part of the definition of this openess is that it is free. That is incorrect. FOSS (free and open source software) does not mean that it is free to host and run the software. It means it’s free to be used however you would like. You don’t have to pay a licensing fee to get the software. Similarly, decentralization does not mean that there is no cost. It means that there is no central point of failure, and it is is up to each participant to ensure open access and the principles of decentralization.
Perhaps a better way to think about this is to consider the web and some of the tangential technologies. The web is decentralized. It has a standards body, but anyone can build on the web. Anyone can create services. It’s open. However, it is not free. Hosting a website can range in cost from the electricity you pay for a small server in your house to the monthly fee you pay a hosting provider.
Email (the combined protocols that make up email, that is) is decentralized and open. It is not free. You can run an email server in your home or office, or you can pay a service to manage this at a larger scale or with more distribution and accessibility.
Blockchain is decentralized, but it is not free. Ignoring the transactions fees that come with blockchains, participating in a blockchain network costs money. Just like with the web and email examples, you can run a blockchain node on your own by paying for the hardware and electricity costs or you can pay a service provider that runs hosted instances.
IPFS is decentralized but not free. Anyone who wants to can download an IPFS node and run it on their own computer. It’s actually relatively simple. However, if you want to distribute your content across the globe and make it fast, you may choose to pay a provider. This is not free. Nor is running your own node.
Circling all the way back to the open web and web hosting, hosting is not free. The web, and the ability to host websites, is open and decentralized. However, there is always a cost. The scale of that cost is entirely up to you. Orbiter has a free plan and what we think are generous paid plans. However, you can certainly host your website for free elsewhere. The problem comes when free services are neither open nor actually free.
Many hosting providers raise money from venture capitalist. This allows them to subsidize the cost of hosting websites with VC money. This trend has happened for at least 15 years now. It creates a false sense that things should be free. When in reality, things are subsidized. When the subsidies end or run out, unexpected bills suddenly present themselves. A lot of times, these bills are significantly higher than if you had just been paying for a sustainable service from the start.
The open web exists. It is decentralized, much like a lot of the other services that run parallel and compliment the web. Understanding that open does not mean free is a major step toward freeing yourself to pursue solutions that better align with what you actually want to accomplish.
Orbiter supports the open web. Orbiter is open.