The web as a distributed computing platform

Abstract

Perceived as a vast, interconnected graph of content, the reality of the web is very different. Immense computational resources are used to deliver this content and associated services. An even larger pool of computing power is comprised by edge user devices. This latent potential has gone unused. Ar frames the web as a distributed computing platform, unifying processing and storage infrastructure with a core programming model and a common set of browser-provided services. By exposing the inherent capacities to programmers, a far more powerful capability has been unleashed, that of the Internet as a distributed computing system. We have implemented a prototype system that, while modest in scale, fully illustrates what can be realized.