The 2009 Edition of the Rich Web Experience: Adding Spice to Your Applications

Several years ago, I called an Ajax conference a condiment conference because most everyone there concerned themselves with technologies that augmented other technologies (for example, your base language is Java but you need JavaScript to make your applications suck less). Now, I think that user interaction, web design, the rise of Rich Internet Applications (when used suitably), and other user-facing issues have a deeper relationship to the underlying technologies. Thus, I'm calling this year's Rich Web Experience the spice for your underlying technology. Food is edible without condiments, but bland without spices. You can't avoid the browser as a platform; might as well embrace it in Orlando in December.