I believe that PDF and Flash will hang around for quite some time. They are too widespread to disappear quickly. But I am excited about the rise of HTML5 and the gradual replacement of these closed formats. For instance, Scribd’s move to HTML5 is one such step. The reason for my excitement is mostly because I don’t like how PDF and Flash often break basic ingredients of the web, such as linking and search (yes, I am aware that there are workarounds, but they are ugly).
But there is one additional reason to be excited that I believe is sometimes overlooked: the ability to “View Source.” I believe that much of the speed of innovation on the web has been enabled by developers rapidly learning from each other. You see something neat, like a really nice looking form validation, and the code is just one click away. In a sense the web (front end) has been the ultimate in open source. The move to HTML5 will further this ability. There are many areas where I believe this will help, but one in particular: the creation of better and better learning objects for math and physics.
