Offline First as a Social Movement
Balancing social power, regardless of level of connectivity
This post was co-authored by Gregor Martynus and Teri Chadbourne.
As the Offline First community, we facilitate discussion about making applications that work under the most constrained network conditions. From infrastructure challenges in the developing world to shoddy connections on the subway, we know our networks are unreliable, and we strive to create the best of user experiences in the worst of network conditions. This is both a technical and design challenge, so naturally these were the topics we have focused on in the past 5 years, since the term Offline First was coined back in 2013. As we consider the past and future of the movement, however, it’s clear that there’s a social motive driving our technical efforts.
A driving factor in the past decade has been the emergence of mobile devices and the common understanding that the lack of reliable connectivity can no longer be treated as an error condition, but rather as a frequent state of our applications. The only way to achieve that is to move more and more logic onto our devices, making the client less dependent on access to central servers. Technical advances such as Service Worker, PouchDB, and Progressive Web Apps, coupled with careful attention to UX concerns, are transforming the way we experience the mobile web.
Despite its technical challenges and advances, however, the Offline First movement is — at its heart — a social one. We’re working to democratize access to data by enabling universal access regardless of network conditions. Within this common goal, though, lie many threads of interest, and it’s our job as a community to identify the compelling stories that can move us forward. In an unconference session at Offline Camp Berlin we explored the social side of the Offline First movement and the work that still needs to be done in defining our vision.
Motivations for the Offline First approach
User experience
Many of us arrive at the Offline First movement through the sheer frustration of facing poor user experiences on shoddy networks. The fact that most of us have experienced the effects of a dropped connection make the technical goals of Offline First personally relevant and easy to connect with. We want always-on access to our data, regardless of network conditions.
Business benefits
Offline-capable apps also make good business sense, opening up a market of roughly 3.5 billion people worldwide who are without internet access. Even in stellar network conditions, an Offline First approach has the happy side effect of delivering quick load times, keeping customers engaged and keeping ad revenue rolling.
Humanitarian concerns
More importantly from a social perspective, Offline First is a game-changer for access to critical information in remote communities. In the developing world, for example, challenges with network infrastructure are often amplified by other infrastructure issues, such as unreliable access to electricity. Offline First approaches to data sync enable healthcare workers to manage patient data safely and securely even beyond the reach of standard network infrastructure. Many in the Offline First community are drawn to the movement by this social promise of changing lives by stopping the trend in which solid network connections are a prerequisite for access to sources of knowledge, communication, and enrichment.
Decentralization
For some, though, working to change our applications and websites to adapt to a world of imperfect infrastructure feels like a workaround. Rather than changing the way we access data from the internet, why not re-think the internet itself, returning to its decentralized roots?
Many in the Offline First community envision a fully decentralized web, where we can get rid of central servers altogether in many cases and connect directly from device to device. Allowing everyone to create their own networks for free would be a way to make the internet accessible to all.
A truly decentralized internet would enable local communities to collaborate on solutions unique to their environments. Creating local network infrastructure would be cheap because reliability would not be a hard requirement for it to work. Patients could share their health data with their doctors without it being stored on central servers on different continents. Students could collaborate on assignments without being penalized for slower network connectivity. Opposition and labor union groups could organize without relying on state-controlled network infrastructure. People impacted by natural disasters could rely on a decentralized network to get and share critical information.
Pushing for a decentralized web, however, requires making the necessary technology and design patterns more accessible — and understandable — to everyone. The verbiage of these solutions — from mesh networking to peer-to-peer protocols — isn’t currently in the common vocabulary, at least in countries where relatively dependable internet access is taken for granted.
Defining a common goal
People have their own reasons for joining the Offline First community. Whether they’re frustrated with their own user experience on spotty connections, passionate about transforming healthcare in the developing world, excited to bring their business to the next 3 billion, or dedicated to creating private and secure peer-to-peer networks for their communities, most share a common goal. With an Offline First approach, we’re offering up the advantages of the internet — communication, knowledge, and enrichment — without depending on unreliable infrastructure.
As a social movement, we have work to do to define our vision and hone our talking points, welcoming community members with many motivations into a movement with a common goal. It’s important for the community to be involved in crafting a mission statement, but during our session Bradley Holt took a first stab at a starting point:
Balancing social power, regardless of level of connectivity
How do you view the mission of the Offline First movement? Join us in the Offline First Slack team to share your thoughts.
Listen to the podcast interview
In an interview at Offline Camp Berlin, camp co-organizer Bradley Holt of IBM spoke with Daniela Matos de Carvalho of YLD, Myles Borins of Google, and Boaz Sender of Bocoup about the Offline First community and the concept of Offline First as a social movement. Listen now on the New Builders Podcast.
Editor’s Note: Want to spend a weekend exploring Offline First at a discussion-based tech retreat? The next Offline Camp will take place August 2–5, 2019 in Grants Pass, Oregon. Learn more in our announcement post or head straight to the website to apply. Can’t make it? Sign up for updates and cast your vote on where we should host future editions of Offline Camp.
