This might seem a little odd, but I would love feedback from the web development community about how you see the web and how you see my Web and Chrome Developer Relations team working.
What is below is almost straight from a doc I was writing that describes our high level goals as a team. My worry is that it could be quite hyperbolic, but it is something I would like to see all web developer relations team be held to in the long term.
This isn't set in stone but I would like to start a discussion around this. I would appreciate as much feedback as possible. Are we missing anything? Are we not focusing on the correct problems? What would you do?
Goal of this doc: A public and open statement about our goals and priorities and how we intend to work with and for developers. A Manifesto for Web Developer Relations, if you will.
The web is for everyone. The medium of the web has such an incredible reach with an incredibly low friction to access and no single owner making it the most open platform in the history of the world enabling anyone anywhere to publish content and consume information and experiences.
Our goal is to help developers build for this open platform and meet the needs of their users and to make the world's information and experiences universally accessible.
We advocate for an open web on behalf of the Chrome team and users of the web and we will support the ecosystem to reach these broad goals irrespective of the browser, the tools or platforms that developers and their users prefer. We will support this goal by creating the supporting guidance and tooling that they need to be successful.
We prefer working in the open and we strive to help developers achieve their goals with as much transparency as possible, by working with developers directly.
We will advocate for developers and using feedback from the developer community we will help steer Chrome and our contributions to the web platform.
We believe that the web is for everyone and developers need to focus on the principles of Accessibility, Speed, Security, Simplicity and Capability for the long term health of the web.
Accessibility
The web has incredible reach and that means that anyone and everyone should be able to use it irrespective of capability.
We will work to ensure that developers understand why they should build accessible sites and how they can build them. We will work to ensure that developers have all the tools they need to simplify the process of creating accessible experiences.
Speed
The web's strength is the ability to access content, apps and games with a single tap of a link. People should not be penalised because their devices or connectivity are more constrained than the developer's.
We want the web to be usable instantly on every visit to a page and be useable even in the presence of unstable connectivity. We want experiences to be smooth and engaging and most of all we want those experiences to be respectful of the user's constraints be it battery, performance, connectivity or associated costs.
We will work to ensure that there are clear goals and targets for all developers to aim for, that the tools and libraries that developers use are fast by default and that the reason for reaching these goals is rational and well understood.
Security
The web is a user hostile medium and it's easy for developers to build sites that can be easily exploited. Users should be able to trust the sites that the engage without the fear of tracking, monitoring or active attack.
We want users to remain secure in the presence of an adverse network or actors between the user and the services that they consume.
We will help developers build secure sites and software by default through best practice guidance, tooling and engagement with the wider ecosystem.
Privacy
The web is a user hostile medium. Users should be able to trust the sites that the engage without the fear of tracking, monitoring or loss of data.
We want users to be able to understand the interactions that they have with sites and services and to be able to trust the sites they use and be cognizant of the trade-offs and implications.
We will build out best practice and guidance to show how developers how to build optimal user experiences that users trust without the need to revert to "dark patterns" that erode trust. We will work to make developers aware of the implications of the data they're collecting or exposing and to be able to critically examine what's necessary.
Simplicity
The web is the simplest and most effective means to reach people, yet it can seem overly complex to build for.
We want to enable and promote the reach of the platform whilst keeping the web simple to build upon. We want to also make new powerful capabilities of the web platform simple for developers to adopt.
We will explain the platform from the ground up by creating best practice guidance and tooling, we will work with library creators and we will support framework authors and their ecosystems.
Capability
The web is a viable alternative to native platforms, yet the levels of support across browsers and devices make it hard for this to be a reality.
We want experiences to be able to accessible to everyone and not locked away inside an app or other closed platforms. We want users and developers to understand what the web can do and how they can deliver the rich experiences their users desire in the medium of their choice.
We will create the tooling and guidance needed for developers to be able to take advantage of the latest additions to the platform in a way that is respectful of the capabilities of the users devices and capabilities of other browsers. It's not a race to match native, developers will be able to clearly see a path to integrating leading edge technology in a way that is good for their users and their themselves.
That's it I think. I would very much appreciate your thoughts and feedback.
Edit: Updated the title. Edit: Updated "Security and Privacy" to mention more about privacy. Split out the two definitions.
I lead the Chrome Developer Relations team at Google.
We want people to have the best experience possible on the web without having to install a native app or produce content in a walled garden.
Our team tries to make it easier for developers to build on the web by supporting every Chrome release, creating great content to support developers on web.dev, contributing to MDN, helping to improve browser compatibility, and some of the best developer tools like Lighthouse, Workbox, Squoosh to name just a few.
I love to learn about what you are building, and how I can help with Chrome or Web development in general, so if you want to chat with me directly, please feel free to book a consultation.
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