This could really change the Web and piss off groups like RIAA

According to a post by Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced today the formation of a new Web Real-Time Communications Working Group. This group is looking to lay the groundwork, through client-side APIs, for real-time communications in the browser that won’t require any server-side implementation.

Not sure what all that means?

Well, just imagine that our browsers are connected directly to each other and using real-time APIs and P2P share everything from video, voice, or run applications – all without the need of a server.

As Marshall points out – this could have a huge impact on the web and how we use it.

“These APIs should enable building applications that can be run inside a browser,” the new Working Group’s charter says, “requiring no extra downloads or plugins, that allow communication between parties using audio, video and supplementary real-time communication, without having to use intervening servers (unless needed for firewall traversal, or for providing intermediary services).”

The working group is being lead by two engineers: Harald Alvestrand from Google and Stefan Håkansson from Ericsson.