Update: there are now videos (screencasts) and audio of the talk available on the Mozilla blog.

I am currently at the Webvisions Event in Barcelona, Spain and tomorrow I will give a talk about “HTML5 and the future of the web”. To spice things up a bit, as I enjoyed watching The Lorax on the plane and seeing that a lot of people at the conference are parents, I thought it would be a good plan to write my whole slide deck in Dr.Seuss rhymes. This may go down immensely well, or fail horribly, but you got to take chances.

The talk (with a few extra slides) is available on Slideshare, as a PDF on Dropbox and as a styled HTML version on GitHub. Also thanks to Eric Shepherd for some rhyming help.

Enough of this – here we go:

1. There’s a big web out there, 
   it’s huge – I tell you, 
   it spans the whole world, 
   but it was boring and blue…
   
2. Then change came about, 
   in the shape of a fox, 
   it was cunning and open, 
   and it broke all the locks.
   
3. Others showed up,
   and joined the good fight, 
   a singer, an adventurer, 
   and a shiny new knight.
   
4. These all played together, 
   and spoke the same tongue, 
   which brought back old players,
   to join them in song. 
   
5. A standard was set, 
   and it changed a few things,
   a richer web for apps, 
   was the promise it brings.
   
6. Bah, standards! Who needs them?
   Some flashy ones said, 
   till a phone that was smart,
   kicked them out of its bed.
   
7. We moved past one standard, 
   as web work is richer,
   so “HTML5 and friends“,
   paints a much better .
   
8. Things that are fun, 
   should be shiny and cool,
   that’s why the new standards
   bring many a new tool.
   
9. Watching and hearing,
   are what people like to do.
   Using and is simple,
   and you can do it, too.
   
10. Both of them are web-native,
    which is a reason to clap.
    They can interact with other content,
    and Mozilla Popcorn makes that a snap.
11. If beats and frequencies are
    what you need to play,
    check the Web Audio API -
    it gives you just that – even today.
    
12. To play nice with batteries,
    use requestAnimationFrame(),
    don’t let it stop you
    that it has such a long name.
    
13. 3D graphics are thrilling,
    as gamers will tell,
    we now have that on the web
    and it is called WebGL.
    
14. Water goes everywhere you pour it,
    just ask Chris about his Macbook Air :(
    MediaQueries allow you be as fluid
    and respond instead of despair.
    
15. Natural movements are smooth,
    just open your eyes.
    With CSS animation, transforms and transition,
    you can mimic this – nice!
    
16. “The web means you need to be online”,
    I hear smartypants gloat,
    well, we have offline storage,
    so there – take your coat.
    
17. Got a cam and some friends,
    and do you want to chat?
    WebRTC is what you need,
    even to show off your cat.
    
18. Rhymes sometimes don’t come easy,
    as you just became aware.
    So let’s just move ahead quickly,
    this was just too much to bear.
    
19. An artist needs a ,
    and HTML5 gave us that.
    Read, write and convert pixels,
    All in the client, it’s mad!
    
20. “We don’t have rich elements!”
    many people complain,
    Use Web Components with X-Tag
    and create them – easy to maintain.
    
21. Passwords are tough, 
    it is easy to see, 
    so allow login with emails,
    using BrowserID.
    
22. The web is a mess,
    with third party buttons abound.
    Web Intents make them pointless,
    let’s not have them around.
    
23. By design HTML5 is forgiving,
    its parser is great.
    It didn’t want to break the web,
    so let’s not break it in its stead.
    
24. Course you can write weird things,
    and they will work – there’s no doubt.
    But will they be readable by others?
    This is what it’s about.
    
25. You don’t create for yourself,
    or your friends who are the same.
    You develop for the next guy,
    so make sure you’re not to blame.
    
26. You don’t jump in a river,
    if you don’t know its depth.
    On the web using Modernizr,
    should be your first step.
    
27. Give new stuff to new players,
    and use it to enhance.
    Don’t support when it’s not needed
    IE6 walks – it can’t dance!
    
28. With a vendor prefix browsers tell you
    “this is not ready”.
    So by all means, give them a go,
    but don’t expect to go steady. 
    
29. And those prefixes vanish,
    you mustn’t forget!
    End with a prefixless version,
    It’s your very best bet.
    
30. So we ask you to help us,
    build a web that will last.
    Be future friendly and look forward,
    and stop building for the past.
    
31. The web is on phones,
    tablets, computers, TVs.
    We have to move it forward.
    or else our existence will cease.
    
32. Hardware that is locked up,
    is not what we are about,
    so check out Firefox OS,
    if you like the web – you will like it – no doubt.
    
33. Last but not least,
    if you find something’s wrong
    please file a bug and tell us,
    this is how things get done.
    
34. So there you have a lot to play with,
    check out and share.
    We really want you to do that,
    come on, show us you care.
35. Unless someone like you
    cares a whole awful lot,
    nothing is going to get better.
    It’s not.
    
36. So well done for reading and listening,
    and going great lengths,
    that’s all we got time for today,
    so good-bye and thanks!