Technology in Society 65 (2021) 101529

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Technology in Society
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/techsoc

HTML5 and the evolution of HTML; tracing the origins of digital platforms
Raúl Tabarés
TECNALIA, Basque Research & Technology Alliance, Spain

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) has experienced a major transformation during the last decade prior to
HTML5 releasing its latest version known as HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5). Several elements conceived around
Web 2.0 HTML during this period introduced significant problems in the development of the standard due to an increasing
WHATWG
fragmentation and complexity in protocols, platforms, devices and systems. With the setting up of the WHATWG
Platform economy
SCOT model
(Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) and the popularization of HTML5, initial disagree­
ments between W3C (World Wide Consortium) and other digital platforms around the strategy to follow were put
to an end. However, the development of HTML5 has opened up doors to profound changes in the way that web
standards are produced and the role of the Web as a techno-social platform. For shedding some light on these
issues, this paper provides a retrospective throughout a historical revision of the evolution of HTML, shedding
some light into the technical, economic and social factors that helped to create a “Living Standard”. For achieving
this objective, the paper is built on the empirical evidence gathered from 21 interviews carried out with different
HTML5 experts as well as a documentation analysis around the hypertext standard. This contribution stresses
how the platform economy paradigm emerged thanks to different factors contributing to the increasing
centralization that can be observed nowadays. Lastly, it is argued that the role of organizations like W3C and
others should be strengthened for avoiding the oligopolistic practices of digital platforms in future episodes of
socio-technical controversies.

1. Introduction qualitative approach case study for understanding how HTML5 favored
the rise of an emergent economy oriented to data [2] and where main
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) has been the official hypertext proponents of this paradigm are also framed as “platform economy”
standard since the beginning of the Web. Tim Berners-Lee is considered representatives [6–8]. To achieve that aim, this study is built up around
the first pioneer in proposing the idea of connecting files into different empirical evidence gathered throughout 21 semi-structured interviews
computers throughout hyperlinks [1] establishing a language that can conducted to different HTML5 experts plus a literature review on tech­
intertwin different web pages. In the last years and thanks to the rising of nical documentation associated to the development of the standard.
HTML5, its associated technologies (CSS3, JavaScript, etc.) and features The text is structured as follows: The next section situates the evo­
(video, canvas, etc.), HTML has experienced a great transformation that lution of HTML till the development of HTML5, the third section ex­
defies the previous conception of hypertext as a standard valid for plains the methodology, the fourth section presents the findings of the
interconnecting documents throughout different computers. This inno­ interviews and the fifth section encapsulates the discussion about the
vation in standards has not only opened up doors to a great change in the implications of the development of HTML5 before recapping a brief
conceptualization of hypertext but also in the development of standards conclusion.
through more agile and lean methods for involving users feedback and
ideas into standardization processes that are currently demanded by the 2. Situating HTML and its evolution
emerging data economy [2]. Due to these technical reconfigurations, the
Web and its role as a techno-social platform in society has also been Hypertext as a concept was originally proposed by Vannebar Bush in
revisited within the increasing complexity and fragmentation intro­ his famous essay entitled “As We May Think” where he theorized about
duced by mobile devices and digital platforms [3–5]. a machine that can serve to personal uses called Memex [9]. This per­
The objective of this paper is to provide a retrospective throughout a sonal device could allow people to store books, movies as well as looking

E-mail address: [email protected].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101529
Received 30 August 2019; Received in revised form 16 January 2021; Accepted 22 January 2021
Available online 17 February 2021
0160-791X/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
R. Tabarés Technology in Society 65 (2021) 101529

for information in an agile way [10]. Theodor Nelson was another great XML (AJAX) and Flash2 created a new technological ground to advance
ideologist of the hypertext with his project Xanadú.1 An initiative started and to promote the concept of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) as a new
in 1960 with the aim of creating a global and unique document (a web development paradigm [36].
docuverse) where all the literature and knowledge of humanity could be “Web application” was the chosen term to refer to solutions devel­
gathered thanks to a vast network of interconnected computers [11]. oped during this era that wanted to simplify and pack existing tech­
Nelson also used the hypertext term to refer to “a body of written or nologies into components that can be run by a web browser. Similarly to
pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not desktop applications, these innovations allowed to use JavaScript or
conveniently be presented or represented on paper” [12]. virtual machines for implementing additional features in browsers that
Other innovations such as HyperCard [13,14] and the emergence of were previously not implemented in the HTML standard. This will
DNS on the Internet in the 80′ s favored the evolution to the practical extend the reach of websites, its functionalities and user-interaction
implementation of this theoretical idea of linking documents throughout possibilities. RIAs will also “become the norm” in web development
machines. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee and his research group at CERN during the Web 2.0 period as this structure will provide new possibilities
launched the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and HTML which was for websites avoiding at the same time overcharging web servers with
also based on SGML (Standard Generalized MarkUp Language). This was unnecessary petitions. RIAs will also set the basis for developing the
a generic language that allowed to define document structures of all technological ground for digital platforms that start to emerge during
kinds and designed to function at any kind of machine. The idea of this period on the Internet [4]. These changes favored a “platformiza­
grounding HTML in SGML was to build up an independent language tion” of the Web in a clear move towards interoperability between
from the browser or the application used for interpreting the informa­ different components [37,38].
tion displayed in the screen [15]. To attach the development of HTML to The increasing popularity of the Web during this period transformed
the already existing SGML was a success because it facilitated the it into a mass media product [26] and press coverages in TV, radio or
diffusion of the new language as it shared several features with the old magazines were dedicated to the appearance of new websites with new
one. In addition, the simplicity of the “anchor element” to create hy­ features which facilitated the onboarding of new users to the Web that
perlinks contributed to promote its diffusion and adoption [16]. In were not previously engaged (see Fig. 1 for instance). During the first
addition, the establishment of a mailing list by Tim Berners-Lee in days of the Web, this platform was not oriented to non-technical users
September 1991 for discussing about future improvements also but thanks to the appearance of User Generated Content (UGC) plat
contributed to its popularization.
George P. Landow, a famous scholar of HTML, has indicated many
times that hypertext allows to connect verbal texts as well as texts with
other materials such as images, videos, sounds, maps and many other
elements, creating what he refers to as hypermedia [17]. This author
stresses that the hypertext helps to develop a new kind of reader much
more in control of his reading path and with new functions that can be
previously considered only at the hands of a writer. At the same time,
Landow also stresses how hypertext introduces fragmentation in texts
which has been also pointed out by other authors [18]. Hypertext is of
paramount importance for media as it has created a new environment
for contents and new possibilities of interaction with readers. Other
authors speak about similar terms such as polymedia [19] or new media
[20] for alluring to the new communicative possibilities raised by hy­
pertext as well as stressing the different values associated to these for­
mats such as modularity, automation, numerical representation,
variability and transcodification [21]. Hypertext also needs of collabo­
rative writing and many social media platforms [22,23] that appeared
during the Web 2.0 phenomenon [24–26] exploited this for accommo­
dating their business models. Blog posts, Facebook updates or tweets
become meaningful when other users read, share, comment or rewrite
those pieces of information, extending their reach and meanings.

2.1. The problem with Web 2.0 technologies

After this initial stage of the evolution of the Web, a second period
commonly known as “Web 2.0” shaped the evolution of HTML during
the beginning of the 2000s decade and immediately after the dot com
bubble burst [27,28]. In this period, conceptualizations of new business
models around platforms were pushed forward, creating tremendous
implications in society at a later stage [5–7,25,29–33]. In addition to its
different socio-economic impacts, Web 2.0 period also pushed forward
several technologies that promoted a significant change in the nature of
the Web [13,34,35]. Some of them were an evolution of already existing
ones such as Extended Markup Language (XML) but others such as Fig. 1. December’s Time magazine cover in 2006. Source: Wikimedia.
Application Programming Interface (API), Asynchronous JavaScript and

1
http://www.xanadu.com.
2
Flash Player is a proprietary software that allows to play different multi­
media contents.

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R. Tabarés Technology in Society 65 (2021) 101529

forms during this period such as wikis, blogs or social networking sites, WHATWG was open to stakeholder collaboration and established
many users without coding skills were seduced to start tinkering with several tools, such as mailing lists, to incorporate ideas from different
these services [39]. Uploading photos to Flickr or Picasa, videos to users of HTML around the world, extending the features of HTML and
YouTube, listening to music in Myspace or making posts in blogger were guaranteeing its backwards compatibility with previous versions [47].
some of the options that the new websites offered to create a personal The group also worked into several native and multimedia functions of
space online [5,22,23,30]. this new version of HTML such as audio, video, canvas and many others
In this regard, the importance of multimedia content in the online “to transform HTML4 into a standard capable of including new features for
sphere during this period of the Web history is huge for attracting users modern web application developers” [48].
to these incipient digital platforms [13,34,35,40,41]. But the introduc­ Nevertheless, W3C insisted on promoting XHTML2 and other tech­
tion of multimedia contents was far from being smooth and it required nologies as an alternative for replacing HTML. After two and a half
from several add-ons coming from the proprietary software domain such years, slow procedures and not really significant progresses made by the
as Flash [42] or Silverlight [43] for presenting multimedia elements W3C contrasted to high expectations delivered by the great advances
such as videos or animations conveniently in web browsers. These ele­ posed by HTML5 and the work conducted by the WAHTWG [49]. This
ments were considered “black boxes” as robots from search engines led to Tim Berners-Lee to announce that the W3C will join forces with
couldn’t crawl the information hosted in these elements for developing the WHATWG for pushing forward HTML [50]. Three years later, W3C
services that can be monetized [44]. HTML was not equipped with these decided to abandon activities on XHTML2 and dismantled related
native capabilities and this would be the main problem that the World working groups with the sole objective of reinforcing HTML5 activities
Wide Consortium (W3C) and other organizations that contributed to the [51]. Prior to that, the joint efforts of these two organizations produced a
development of web standards will try to solve. The development of working draft [52] and in the following years Mozilla Firefox and sub­
native capabilities in HTML will become the big objective for players sequently other web browsers started to implement this new version of
involved in the incipient digital economy with the ambition to transform HTML [53]. This occurred first, as a W3C candidate recommendation in
an static standard into a dynamic, augmented and interactive one able to 2011 [54] and finally as an official recommendation in October 28, 2014
provide the technological basis for digital business models based on data [55]. This official recommendation has also been updated with a later
[2,31,34,35]. recommendation in December 14, 2017 known as HTML 5.2 [56].

2.2. The rising of HTML5 2.3. The socio-technical construction of digital platforms

The development of HTML5 is a tipping point in the history of the In addition to the technical factors that spurred the rising of HTML5
Web for its innovative features but also by the way it was conceived and it is also necessary to pay attention to other socio-economic issues that
developed. The origins of this standard lie in a group of professionals facilitated the development of this technology. As it has been stressed,
coming from Opera Software, The Mozilla Foundation and at a later during the Web 2.0 period a growing presence of multimedia contents
stage, Apple, that was unsatisfied with the strategy of the W3C for facing was favored by the increasing onboarding of users without coding skills
the new needs around HTML raised by the Web 2.0 period. The W3C thanks to the deployment of UGC websites [35,39]. Non-technical users
wanted to push forward Extensible Hypertext MarkUp Language 2 were attracted to the Web thanks to these new services that allowed
(XHTML2) which is a standard with no backwards compatibility with them to have a digital space for sharing photos with relatives and
prior versions of HTML and that also demanded a new MIME type.3 This friends, uploading videos and staying connected with former friends
route implied to abandon the work done with previous versions of among others. These websites were pushed forward by companies that
HTML. looked to establish sustainable business models after the bubble burst
The call into question was initiated at a workshop hosted by the W3C that swept the 78% of the total value of NASDAQ index between March
in June 2014 called “Web Applications and Compound Documents”4 2000 and October 2002 [27]. Prior to that event, investors usually
where several doubts were raised about this approach by different funneled money into different Internet companies without a clear
professionals from these organizations (Opera, Firefox and Apple). This business plan but the Web 2.0 period will change that radically as the
event led to a major disagreement with the W3C vision from other or­ importance of having a business model and a value proposal will be
ganizations such as Google or Microsoft and following that event an critical for attracting investors and for business growth [28].
independent group known as Web Hypertext Application Technology In particular, the combination of the Business Model Canvas (BMC)
Working Group (WHATWG)5 was set up by these dissenting voices after [57] and the Lean Startup Manifesto (LSM) [58] approaches will exert a
the meeting [45]. The vision of these industry leaders was mainly significant influence in digital entrepreneurship ecosystems. These two
interested in technical interoperability and backwards compatibility of ideas will favor an iterative logic instead of a lineal one for conceptu­
new languages with previous versions of HTML whilst stressing the open alizing, developing and implementing businesses ideas [28]. In addition,
and public character of Web technologies. During the workshop some of the importance of user-driven innovation approaches [59–61] will grow
the dissenting voices of these group of professionals framed their pro­ as they will be considered critical in the different iterations needed for
posal around 7 principles [46]: testing technical features but also because of the new business models
based on user data. It is also worthy to say that innovational organiza­
1. Backwards Compatibility, clear migration path. tions like these have been common in the history of standards [62,63]
2. Well-defined error handling. and attention to them will be paid later on during the text. Many com­
3. Users should not be exposed to authoring errors. panies raised during this period such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and
4. Practical use. others previously consolidated such as Apple and Microsoft started their
5. Scripting is here to stay. transformation into digital platforms for adopting the two-sided net­
6. Device-specific profiling should be avoided. works market logic. These companies benefitted from the powerful
7. Open process. network effects that UGC websites will deliver with the continuous and
increasing growth of Internet users in the Web 2.0 period [5,39,64].
Two-sided networks was not a new idea but due to technology [65],
3
MIME type is a two-part identifier for file formats and format contents that digital platforms in this period were able to congregate millions of users
is specified and visible at the top of websites. of one side (the users of the service) for offering an audience that can be
4
http://www.w3.org/2004/04/webapps-cdf-ws/. valorized on the other side (advertisers that will pay for accessing that
5
https://whatwg.org/. audience). Many of the business models that were put into place during

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R. Tabarés Technology in Society 65 (2021) 101529

this period were reliant on advertisement following the success of a hypertext-based standard to the acquisition of different multimedia
companies like Google. These practices were oriented to transform into features in its fifth version throughout several APIs as well as paying
economic value the increasing number of users that were attracted to the attention to the different stakeholders involved in its development tak­
Web throughout social media and Web 2.0 services. Here, multimedia ing into account the SCOT model. This last objective was critical for
contents will be critical in lowering the entrance barriers for the adop­ identifying which organizations should be addressed throughout the
tion of Web technologies as well as mobile devices will also contribute to second method employed: the interviews.
this extent. Later on, many of the popular websites raised during this From July 2014 till the beginning of 2015, 21 semi-structured in­
period will be also moving to mobile ecosystems throughout “apps” for terviews were carried out to different experts in HTML5, on a voluntary
increasing their database user whilst offering new functionalities and basis, and selected between different previously identified stakeholders
developing new commercial assets. of the Web value chain using the literature review but after that,
All of these events will facilitate the establishment of the so-called employing a snowball strategy. The main objective was to recruit the
“platform economy” for referring to the increasing dominant position main stakeholders interested in the development of technology such as
of companies that currently based their business models around digital browser vendors (Opera Software, The Mozilla Foundation), search
platforms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple or Net­ engines (Google, Yandex), standardization authorities (W3C Spain Of­
flix [6–8]. These companies are the mostly recognized representatives of fice), Internet start up’s around HTML5 technology (Ludei, Wimi5,
a new kind of economy that makes use of technological infrastructures, Otogami), industry associations (HTML5 Spain), social media platforms
user data and metadata to develop innovative services associated to (Tuenti, Karmacracy), smartphone manufacturers (Blackberry), web
innovative technologies. These technologies heavily rely on great designers (La Personalité), research institutes and universities (Deusto
quantities of data such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual University, TECNALIA), as well as other individual experts. The goal of
Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT) and others for developing this method was also enclosed in SCOT model, paying attention to the
competitive assets for the financial economy. different motivations, attitudes and values that these stakeholders had in
However, this trajectory needed from a technical ground to be car­ the future development of HTML5. This heterogeneous and diverse
ried out and this is where the paper stands as a retrospective of how all of mixture of stakeholders assured to provide a comprehensive vision of
these factors favored the development of HTML5 as a common ground different interests around this technology.
pushed forward by the major representatives of the platform economy. The interviews were delivered following a flexible script with spe­
In the next section, the methodology employed in this study will be cific questions around the attitudes, values and motivations for being
developed. engaged in the design, development, use or adoption of the technology.
This script was built up for developing the questions around certain
3. Methodology domains of interest from a SCOT model perspective [66,67,70], trying to
understand which factors were shaping the development of the new
This study has relied on a qualitative approach combining a litera­ technology [68] and what the importance of the user is in the innovation
ture review with semi-structured interviews conducted with different process developed [40,59,60]. Interview contents has been analyzed for
kinds of experts of HTML5. These two methods have been developed determining motivations, drivers and barriers of different stakeholders
throughout the theoretical lenses that the Social Construction of Tech­ for being engaged in the diffusion of this technology. Interviews were
nology (SCOT) model provides. This theory developed by scholars such carried out physically when possible and when not via online
as Wiebe Bijker, Trevor Pinch and Thomas P. Hughes belongs to the throughout a digital platform. Interviews length has ranged from 40 min
larger tradition of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and argues that to 1 h and a half based on the willingness of the interviewees for sharing
“technological artifacts are culturally constructed and interpreted” [66]. information and the quality of the conversations regarding the themes
Proponents of this theory also argue that technology is shaped by human proposed. Interviews were recorded and selectively transcribed for
actions and by the social context where it has been designed and summing up the main points of them. All participants have received an
conceived. In this sense, “there is not just one possible way or one best way Informed Consent Form (ICF) that explains the objectives of the research
of designing an artifact” [66]. SCOT proponents argue that in order to and data collection and data treatment processes.
understand how a particular technology has been rejected or accepted, Thematic analysis was carried out for analyzing interviews content
the context and the social map of relations where it has been concep­ following several guidelines [71] and the main findings were resumed
tualized should be scrutinized. into templates that gather the main themes observed during the field­
SCOT model is not only a theory but also a methodology as it com­ work. This process was carried out according to existing literature about
prises several procedures that must be followed for understanding which it [72]. Attention was paid to identify recurring themes associated with
factors are critical for technological development. Core concepts in ideas and actions that appeared recurrently in the transcriptions in the
SCOT model such as “interpretative flexibility” (different meanings and form of opinions, reflections, conceptualizations and experiences that
interpretations of the technology for its different users), “relevant social convey the way that participants understand and are engaged into
groups” (groups of people interested in its development) and “closure HTML5 technologies.
and stabilization” (an stage where the controversy by different users
ends and the artifact adapts its final format) are relevantly used by re­ 4. “Living standard”: A new way of making standards?
searchers for understanding diverse factors that helps or deters a
particular evolution of a technology [67]. Other similar approaches such The development of HTML5 has challenged the already established
as Actor Network Theory (ANT) [68] and others [69,70] also share this structures of W3C for promoting web standards development. This new
social importance of users and actors around processes of technological approach defied W3C working groups classical configurations for
development and innovation. incorporating needs and demands of browser vendors and other stake­
Throughout this theoretical lenses that SCOT model provides, data holders in a more agile and pragmatic way. Historically, standardization
collection in the first method has been focused on compiling and syn­ processes supported by the W3C have been based on two dynamics: the
thetizing significant documents such as reports, peer reviewed articles, primary one that relies on internal working groups and a secondary one
webpages, specifications, norms and standards related with the three that is pushed forward by external contributions (like HTML5).
blocks of the literature review (HTML, Web 2.0 and HTML5). This ma­ Despite W3C working groups are responsible for the majority of web
terial provided an in-depth look to the evolution of hypertext standards standards produced by the institution, the dynamic triggered by the
whilst paying attention to their main characteristics. The goal of this members of the WAHTWG was not the first time it has happened: “W3C
documentation analysis was to characterize the evolution of HTML from was betting on XHTML that implied a stricter labeling for making modules

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and creating a puzzle that could be adapted according to what was needed. Of course, the W3C remains to be the key institution in all these
This external group of experts, that were also W3C members, were working processes and dynamics, but the fragmentation provoked by mobile
on detecting user needs and creating an informal specification based on them. devices, digital platforms, technologies and standards that have been
The W3C realized that the external work that had been carried out was valid appearing during the last decade has generated a growing complexity
and identified the needs of society. A more flexible and lighter programming, (See Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). In addition, the increasing bureaucratization
less corseted, etc. W3C saw that it had to assume this working group within associated to the growing presence of numerous digital players surged
the W3C groups and invited to evolve the HTML5. This dynamic is not new, during the Web 2.0 period in these committees (digital platforms,
because it had already been done, but it is a sign that there are many ways of Internet startups, smartphone manufacturers, etc.) contributed to a lack
making standards and that the figure of W3C must be that of responding to of agility. The response posed by industry representatives to this
the demands and needs of society”. complexity relied on favor more agile approaches to deal with standards
In conducting this external process, WHATWG members seemed to be instead of still relaying on more academic-oriented approaches like in
concerned about establishing open innovation and user-driven innovation the early days of the Web. Complexity and fragmentation were
mechanisms [59,60] for soliciting users demands and embedding them commonly observed in several testimonies from research participants
into the development of HTML5. This new approach proposed by the and tightly associated to the rising of mobile devices. This variety of
WAHTWG stressed the growing importance of embedding users into possibilities to access the Web was one of the drivers to promote the
standardization processes as well as the fragmentation and the growing development of HTML5 in the own words of an interviewee: “Ten years
increase of different stakeholders in standardization processes. Histori­ ago the desktop was the only reference, but the mobile phone of today is like a
cally, rigid approaches and one-sided commercial interests led to major PC. A netbook, a table, a smartphone … there have a lot of capabilities. In
innovations of dominant web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Net­ that sense, the influence is not the mobile but the diversity of devices. Modern
scape Navigator for gaining market share. These practices in previous web development paradigm is based on applications systems. Google, Apple
periods were aimed to impose private interests and developed technical and Microsoft are the ones that are creating the new walled gardens”.
documentation only after these independent moves. The working agenda Other participants in the research also stressed that this academic
of the WHATWG was oriented to avoid these individualistic approaches approach focused on XHTML was also an “automated approach” ori­
for providing a common ground to the already existing web browsers, ented to machines but not to human users because XHTML is a heavy-
creating “space for experimentation” without waiting to an official stan­ text and non-friendly standard for web developers. Here, the relevance
dard’s version and with an approach focused on practical features of of human agency in web development seemed to play a role as coding
HTML [35,37]. WHATWG was also focused on incorporating features that profiles seems to prefer other human-friendly standards. In relation to
can be previously tested beforehand whilst avoiding academic approaches this, some participants in the research that were also members of the
to standardization processes previously used and trying to capture user WHATWG explained why they were primarily worried about the di­
demands as stated by one of its initial founders: “We look at what the Web is rection taken by the W3C as they firmly believe that XHTML was not a
all the time. In the early days of HTML, it was largely scientist and computer feasible solution for maintaining backwards compatibility whilst
scientist oriented, but when video become popular, we invented the “video” incorporating significant capabilities in the standard. These testimonies
element. We need to see how the Web is evolving and to evolve the markup justify their disagreement and explain why they initiated their move
language to accommodate that”. against the W3C: “XHTML wasn’t abandoned; it was just never taken up.
In this sense, a new approach to develop HTML5 was conceptualized We didn’t really pay it much attention when developing HTML. The W3C
by the WHATWG in the form of a “Living Standard”. This motto means made this crazy claim in the late 90s that HTML was dead, but that was just
adopting a more experimental approach to standardization that can be silly, and the browser vendors and Web authors mostly ignored it”.
benefited from different contributions from W3C working groups, external
players and other stakeholders. This “Living Standard” seems to be influ­ 5. Laying the ground for the platform economy
enced by business ideas previously exposed in the text and dominant after
the dot com bubble burst such as BMC and LSM [28,57,58] and it con­ As it has been exposed, the rising of HTML5 has been of utmost
stitutes the main response from WHATWG for developing, improving and importance for the deployment of an emerging data economy. This new
updating HTML to user needs whilst encapsulating the idea of “Web as
platform” [26]. A paradigm that reflects the centrality of this techno-social
environment as the common ground for different platforms, technologies,
services and business models where the data economy [2] has hindered its
roots. The importance of consolidating this idea throughout HTML5 was a
common statement among the interviewed experts: “I believe HTML5
“Living Standard” is very much the future of the Web. It represents the best kind
of middle ground in terms of having a standard that is used by all, it’s univer­
sally accessible and it is not on the hands of one company. The success of the
Web as a platform. We have proved that is a native platform and companies can
build business models on it and apps and things like that”.
The “Living Standard” can be also seen as a new philosophy of
developing hypertext standards that has triumphed over the traditional
working groups hosted by the W3C [34]. HTML5 is a living standard per
se, in which new emerging features are tested in different browsers
(Firefox, Opera, Chrome, IE, Safari) and only when these innovations
have attracted or demonstrated a significant user’s interest as well as
their robustness in different browsers are incorporated to the specifi­
cation. After these processes, the W3C releases an official document to
Fig. 2. List of related HTML5 related technologies. Source: Wikimedia.
confirm and to document the work deployed before. It is also important
to remark that HTML5 standard has included several specifications of
different technologies associated to HTML. The development of these
technologies has also their own member groups, dynamics and processes
of standardization outside the WHATWG. 6
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/HTML/HTML5.

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Fig. 3. Current HTML5 technologies and resources. Own elaboration based on Mozilla HTML5 developer guide6.

version of the standard has assured interoperability, modularity and socio-economic and geo-cultural perspectives. Representatives of the
backwards compatibility but it has also provided a technological basis platform economy have been able to offer to their users with
that has enhanced the iteration and development of sustainable business value-added Internet tools that are oriented to leisure and work [40,41]
models that digital platforms established after the Web 2.0 period [2, whilst its popularization has allowed these companies to acquire a
4–6,8,30,37,38]. Social media companies such as Facebook or Twitter, growing dominant position regarding personal and professional infor­
search engines (i.e. Google), mobile device manufacturers (i.e. Apple) mation that is exploited in many ways.7
and others were greatly benefited from the development of a common Increasing congregation of resources, tools, networks and data is also
new ground in the form of a strong new HTML standard. This was critical another argument that facilitated the success of the WHATWG in
for facing the complexity and fragmentation introduced by mobile de­ abandon W3C working groups and delivering a new version of the
vices in the form of different image resolutions, lower computing pro­ standard able to meet the pressing needs that fragmentation and
cessing power, different resolutions and other constraints that pushed a complexity posed into the Web 2.0 period. The introduction of lean and
major transformation of hypertext [3,34,35]. agile methodologies in Web standardization but also adopting a user-
To this extent, the decentralization that followed the Web 2.0 period driven innovation approach was considered critical by many of the in­
where the PC was not the sole point of entry to the Web anymore [3,26] terviewees and this perfectly illustrates how these digital players are
has also provoked later on a centralization in terms of computing power, well equipped with human talent and enough resources for developing
computing infrastructures, information brokering and cultural inter­ technologies that can back up digital business models [6,61,62]. This
mediacy in the Web. Now, digital platforms such as Google have posi­ “Living Standard” is not only an interesting case for the organizational
tioned themselves as providers of several digital services (in example: innovations introduced and its orientation to practical needs but also
searches, docs, maps, mail, videos, AI, etc.) exerting a considerable because it is one of the incipient signs of the great power of digital
dominant position on the Internet industry. The “platformization” of platforms [7]. In this sense, organizational innovations in standardiza­
different popular websites making their datasets ready and exchange­ tion process are historically common in the development of digital
able throughout APIs [37,38], the development of critical in­ standards and reflect the kind of conflicts that arise between central
frastructures such as server farms and data centers and the colossal authorities, user initiatives and commercial interests [62,63]. The
expansion of two-sided networks [65] have conferred to different digital WHATWG can be framed as a bottom-up initiative that has been legit­
platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Microsoft imated by HTML users and their relation to hypertext, and where spe­
or Twitter with a variety of resources and tools for gathering, processing cific meanings, motivations, values and ideas about what HTML is and
and using data for different commercial purposes [5–8,37,38]. In this how it must evolve has prompted the development of the new version
sense, the development of HTML5 has also contributed to this congre­ and the disagreement with the W3C. These views around technology
gation of resources providing native capabilities to the standard but also development and the incipient artifact are also of importance from the
with the ability for gathering structured data and metadata that can be SCOT model perspective as a social construction phenomenon and
used by algorithms developed by different players of the emerging data negotiated meanings of technology that have also been historically
economy in their recurrent user-profiling techniques [2,33]. common regarding other technologies [40,41,66,68,70]. But in this
The establishment of this “platform economy” paradigm by several particular case, the introduction of these organizational innovations into
digital platforms conceptualized during the ‘00 decade was also shaped standards development stresses how human agency is still really deter­
in great manner by the development of business models associated to the minant in the Web. The turn to a more automatized hypertext planned
great onboarding of non-technical users during this decade. Users with by the W3C with XHTML confronted a significant resistance from the
no coding skills were attracted by new websites (e-mail, blogs, wikis, web development community. The Web is a techno-social platform
social media, etc.) in one of the extremes of these two-sided networks, where different machines and systems are entangled with users that
whilst in the other, more and more advertisers, suppliers, providers and
others were attracted to this emerging data economy facilitated by
digital platforms [64]. To this extent, it seems contradictory how the
7
initial move towards decentralization facilitated by emerging websites For instance, and according to Gartner, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Google
during the Web 2.0 period has ended in a latter socio-technical recon­ have a market share in cloud computing services that is above the 60%. See
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-07-29-gartner-s
figuration of the digital sphere and where centralization can be recog­
ays-worldwide-iaas-public-cloud-services-market-grew-31point3-percent-in-
nized not only from a technical point of view but also from a
2018.

6
R. Tabarés Technology in Society 65 (2021) 101529

want to play an active role and where a great component of user agency Acknowledgements
is still needed in web design, coding and management.
Nevertheless, it is clear that automation is gaining space in the Web This work was supported by the funds received by the Emaitek
as different digital technologies promoted by platform economy pro­ Program of the Basque Government, oriented to support Technology
ponents such as Big Data, IoT and AI are becoming pervasive in many Centers and their corporations and technological alliances. The author
different protocols, systems, apps and devices with the sole objective of would like to thank all the participants in this research for friendly
collecting and gathering user data. The “Living standard” also tell us that sharing their priceless views, ideas and time as well as the two reviewers
human factors and the role of the user into the innovation process is still that helped the author to strength the article with their helpful and
of utmost importance in different cornerstone structures of the Internet constructive reviews.
such as standards [59,60]. The history of web development is also
intimately entangled with the sometimes chaotic and unstructured References
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