About six years ago I wrapped up what I would consider to be my first full year of doing web work. Six years ago was also the inaugural year of Northern Voice, Canada’s first weblogging conference. And even though this year’s NV was the first I’ve attended, it almost feels as if I’ve been along for the ride through the years as the conference, and the web, has matured in this short time.

Many of the talks paralleled thoughts and discussions I’ve had recently in circles of my own friends and colleagues who work in the digital world of the web, and now this thing we call “social media”. One of the topics I’ve been mulling over lately was put into perspective especially well by Chris Messina‘s day 2 opening keynote when he talked about “pop computing” which he defined as:

the simplification of technologies so that many many more people in the mainstream can benefit from these technologies, but that do so by taking away choice, freedom and expressiveness

Drawing references to how the convergence of the web into devices like our TVs is leading to a simpler user experience, one where for example URLs are no longer present, Chris talks about the change in expectations that people will have for what they can do with a computer that’s connected to the web.

With the increasing use of “lean back computing devices” like the iPad, there are changes in people’s expectations of the user experience of interacting with the web – an experience that creates a friendlier user experience through simplicity, but an experience where the simplicity results from the web being constrained.

For example, opening an app is often nothing more than a gateway into data that exists over the web, but in the app world, the address bar does not exist. Contrast this with the experience of exploring the web that would be considered more traditional where you can instantly move from one location to another by entering in the web address for where you want to go, and suddenly you can start to see how there is a freedom of action that is taken away. In the app world, the absence of the address bar means you can’t jump from one digital location to another, you are constrained by the options made available to you by the app. Whereas the more traditional web provides open access, we are seeing a convergence that is leading to closed gardens with gates.

Another insightful observation comes from a brief mention of how “view source” is no longer a default feature in modern web technologies, and certainly not so for the new world of apps. Just like Chris, much of what I’ve learned to do on the web has come from having the ability to view the source code of the work that others have done. We take it for granted because for many of us who have learned the crafts of the trade through hands-on experience, we have always had this ability to view source. But this little element of the web has been extremely empowering as a way to welcome newcomers who are looking to learn more about the building blocks of the web. Without this ability, the web becomes a much more intimidating space, a space that is no longer open but rather one filled with secrets.

The basic practice of sharing the source code of a webpage is at the heart of a concept Chris refers to as “generativity“:

the ability to fork any idea, concept, or thing that you encounter and make it your own, without having to ask permission

Examples of generativity would include technologies such as open source software, as well as practices and standards such as the convention of using the #hashtag as a way to mark keywords in Twitter (a convention, which BTW, Chris created!). Whereas pop-computing brings technologies to many many more people by placing constraints, generativity can do the same but through openness.

When I think of this balance between pop computing and generativity, one of the pinnacle examples where I see this balance being treaded is in the world of content management systems. Using WordPress as an example, I’m involved in work on a daily basis where the simplification of technologies, in this case the ability to create and maintain a presence online, has been made incredibly accessible to a growing number of people. Here we have a technology that lets people with little to no technical knowledge create an incredibly professional-looking website. As a technology or tool, WordPress greatly simplifies the web publishing process by creating a simple and easy-to-use user experience **and it does so by placing constraints on what you can and can’t do** – WordPress focuses first on simplicity to increase adoption as opposed to complexity to increase capabilities.

At the same time, it is the open source roots of WordPress that has enabled it to see the growth and adoption rate it has – and perhaps its most exciting evolution that will be coming with WordPress 3.0. Developers flock to WordPress because of its elegance and simplicity of code. New developers can quickly learn how to replicate and then build on top of the work of others by downloading and viewing the source of plugins and templates. In turn, this ease-of-entry for designers and developers feeds right back into the community by creating an environment where new work can thrive and be re-inserted back into the community.

There is tremendous momentum that builds from all this, and while there are a whole host of elements that enable this evolution, the balance between pop-computing and generativity is at the heart of it all.

If you’re looking for some big ideas to mull over, I highly recommend checking out the full presentation of Chris Messina’s Northern Voice keynote.