While some people disagree with the contention that the web is 15 years old, there's a great interview with Tim Bray and Radia Perlman of Sun. In what will be a multi-part interview, Bray and Perlman discuss briefly the history of web development and the introduction of Sun servers and Java. Without a doubt, Java has had a huge impact on the type of content and services we have available to us. When referring to standards and making good use of them, they had this to say:
So this meant they were interoperable and "Sun servers have been all over the Web" as a result. Tim said there's a lesson to be gained from that - which is that "a rising tide floats all boats." He said "the right way to do the good thing for the Web and the good thing for Sun is to play by the rules - be a good citizen."
Neither of them are fans of some newer web technologies such as peer to peer communications, though for different reasons. Perlman dislikes the level of piracy used, Bray doesn't see it as a growth potential for the net. Of course, many have predicted the "demise" of P2P networks for many years. Both of them seem to the feel that the future of the web lies in authentication and verification of who is doing what, and that it is contrary to the nature of P2P software in an anonymous world. It's a great read, and will be continued.