One positive thing among many others at this version of the HTTP Workshop (day one, day two) is the fact that there have been several new faces showing up here. People who have not previously attended any HTTP Workshops. Getting fresh blood into the mix is great. A chance to maybe lower the average age of the attendees also feels welcome.

This half day was the final session for this time. Three topics were dealt with.

Do you speak HTTP? Getting your HTTP implementation to do right according to the specification can be a challenge. There is a whole range of existing tests for various areas of HTTP but there might still be a place to add HTTP semantic tests in particular for servers. Discussions brought about reflections around testing, doing tests, test formats, other tests, test infrastructure and more. I think the general sense was that yes it would be great. At least if someone else makes it happen…

Every HTTP stack is an intermediary – HTTP semantics is the (requirement for low-level) API. Yes. Lots of nodding around the huge table.

Workshop feedback and thoughts. What is a good cadence for future events, how long should the events be etc. This is probably the maximum amount of attendees we can handle using the same setup. This event was clearly better than several of the past ones in terms of diversity, but I will second our “workshop maestro” in that it could improve further still. We also discussed whether do-arranging together with IETF is good or bad, should it then be before or after IETF?

I think the consensus said that making it biannual event is good. The reasoning for keeping the event in Europe has been because a larger share of the European attendees come from smaller companies compared to the non-Europeans which to a larger degree come from larger companies that might have it easier to pay for longer trips.

My personal take

The HTTP Workshop is a one-of-a-kind event. At these events everything is about and around HTTP with an information density level that is super high. We get to learn how things actually work for people or that do not work. And that we are not alone in whatever struggles or HTTP challenges we have.

Networking with other doers here and absorbing every protocol detail being expressed, gives food for thoughts and lessons to take advantage from in years to come when we for sure are going to take HTTP transfers further. This is in many ways a kind of brain fertilizer event.

Did I mention I enjoyed it? I will certainly try to attend the next one.