https://adactio.com/journal/18350 adactio * Journal * Links * Articles * Notes * About Resigning from the AMP advisory committee August 10th, 2021 Inspired by Terence Eden's example, I applied for membership of the AMP advisory committee last year. To my surprise, my application was successful. I've spent the time since then participating in good faith, but I can't do that any longer. Here's what I wrote in my resignation email: Hi all, As mentioned at the end of the last call, I'm stepping down from the AMP advisory committee. I can't in good faith continue to advise on the AMP project for the OpenJS Foundation when it has become clear to me that AMP remains a Google product, with only a subset of pieces that could even be considered open source. If I were to remain on the advisory committee, my feelings of resentment about this situation would inevitably affect my behaviour. So it's best for everyone if I step away now instead of descending into outright sabotage. It's not you, it's me. I'd like to thank the OpenJS Foundation for allowing me to participate. It's been an honour to watch Tobie and Jory in action. I wish everyone well and I hope that the advisory committee can successfully guide the AMP project towards a happy place where it can live out its final days in peace. I don't have a replacement candidate to nominate but I'll ask around amongst other independent sceptical folks to see if there's any interest. All the best, Jeremy I wrote about the fundamental problem with Google AMP when I joined the advisory committee: This is an interesting time for AMP ...whatever AMP is. See, that's been a problem with Google AMP from the start. There are multiple defintions of what AMP is. There's the collection of web components. If that were all AMP is, it would be a very straightforward project, similar to other collections of web components (like Polymer). But then there's the concept of validation. The validation comes from a set of rules, defined by Google. And there's the AMP cache, or more accurately, Google hosting. Only one piece of that trinity--the collection of web components--is eligible for the label of being open source, and even that's a stretch considering that most of the contributions come from full-time Google employees. The other two parts are firmly under Google's control. I was hoping it was a marketing problem. We spent a lot of time on the advisory committee trying to figure out ways of making it clearer what AMP actually is. But it was a losing battle. The phrase "the AMP project" is used to cover up the deeply interwingled nature of its constituent parts. Bits of it are open source, but most of it is proprietary. The OpenJS Foundation doesn't seem like a good home for a mostly-proprietary project. Whenever a representative from Google showed up at an advisory committee meeting, it was clear that they viewed AMP as a Google product. I never got the impression that they planned to hand over control of the project to the OpenJS Foundation. Instead, they wanted to hear what people thought of their project. I'm not comfortable doing that kind of unpaid labour for a large profitable organisation. Even worse, Google representatives reminded us that AMP was being used as a foundational technology for other Google products: stories, email, ads, and even some weird payment thing in native Android apps. That's extremely worrying. While I was serving on the AMP advisory committee, a coalition of attorneys general filed a suit against Google for anti-competitive conduct: Google designed AMP so that users loading AMP pages would make direct communication with Google servers, rather than publishers' servers. This enabled Google's access to publishers' inside and non-public user data. We were immediately told that we could not discuss an ongoing court case in the AMP advisory committee. That's fair enough. But will it go both ways? Or will lawyers acting on Google's behalf be allowed to point to the AMP advisory committee and say, "But AMP is an open source project! Look, it even resides under the banner of the OpenJS Foundation." If there's even a chance of the AMP advisory committee being used as a Potempkin village, I want no part of it. But even as I'm noping out of any involvement with Google AMP, my parting words have to be about how impressed I am with the OpenJS Foundation. Jory and Tobie have been nothing less than magnificent in their diplomacy, cat-herding, schedule-wrangling, timekeeping, and other organisational superpowers that I'm crap at. I sincerely hope that Google isn't taking advantage of the OpenJS Foundation's kind-hearted trust. 8:57am Tagged with google amp advisory committee resignation openjs opensource monopoly Also on Medium << Newer Older >> Have you published a response to this? Let me know the URL: [ ] Ping! Responses Fynn Becker Thank you @adactio for keeping us informed about the inner workings of Google's AMP project! adactio.com/journal/18350 # Posted by Fynn Becker on Tuesday, August 10th, 2021 at 10:01am Baldur Bjarnason "Adactio: Journal--Resigning from the AMP advisory committee" "Whenever a representative from Google showed up at an advisory committee meeting, it was clear that they viewed AMP as a Google product." adactio.com/journal/18350 # Posted by Baldur Bjarnason on Wednesday, August 11th, 2021 at 10:38am Andrea Pernici It doesn't surprise me adactio.com/journal/18350 #utopic # Posted by Andrea Pernici on Saturday, August 14th, 2021 at 9:48am Goran Majic "I can't in good faith continue to advise on the #AMP project for the OpenJS Foundation when it has become clear to me that AMP remains a # Google product, with only a subset of pieces that could even be considered open source." adactio.com/journal/18350 # Posted by Goran Majic on Saturday, August 14th, 2021 at 1:13pm Giulio S. The dynamics inside the AMP project committee are similar to the Privacy Sandbox. An open-source collaborative project is open to the extent that Google wants. adactio.com/journal/18350 # Posted by Giulio S. on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 at 8:56am Hacker News Resigning from the AMP Advisory Committee: adactio.com/journal/18350 Comments: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282232... # Posted by Hacker News on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 at 7:50pm Winson Tang Resigning from the AMP Advisory Committee adactio.com/journal/18350?... # Posted by Winson Tang on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 at 7:55pm Hacker News 20 Resigning from the AMP Advisory Committee adactio.com/journal/18350 ( news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282232...) # Posted by Hacker News 20 on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 at 8:30pm Dmitrii "Resigning from the AMP advisory committee" adactio.com/journal/18350 "I can't in good faith continue to advise on the AMP project ... when it has become clear to me that AMP remains a Google product, with only a subset of pieces that could even be considered open source." # Posted by Dmitrii on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 at 9:43pm 1 Share # Shared by Aslak Raanes on Wednesday, August 11th, 2021 at 10:44am 1 Like # Liked by Marty McGuire on Tuesday, August 10th, 2021 at 1:42pm Previously on this day 1 year ago I wrote Influence An interesting idea from the birth of CSS. Monday, August 10th, 2020 2:50pm 2 years ago I wrote Crossing I'm off to sea. Saturday, August 10th, 2019 6:50pm 2 years ago I wrote Server Timing Performance sluething. Saturday, August 10th, 2019 2:43pm 3 years ago I wrote Flexibility Web design is a two-way street. And that's okay. Friday, August 10th, 2018 3:59pm 6 years ago I wrote dConstruct 2015 podcast: Ingrid Burrington Time travel, terminators, and network infrastructure. Monday, August 10th, 2015 11:22am 7 years ago I wrote Responding A pair of responsive design events in London. Sunday, August 10th, 2014 6:27pm 8 years ago I wrote August in America, day seven Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Saturday, August 10th, 2013 5:54am 9 years ago I wrote Laboratory conditions The testlab setup. Friday, August 10th, 2012 5:47pm 18 years ago I wrote Reflections There's a new picture by Jessica up at The Mirror Project. Sunday, August 10th, 2003 5:12pm 19 years ago I wrote Tales of the Plush Cthulhu "After vigintillions of years plush Cthulhu was loose once more, and ravening for delight. How He slavered and gibbered! And the stuffed animals fled or went mad at the sight of Him." Saturday, August 10th, 2002 3:25pm 19 years ago I wrote The Spiders From E-Sheep comes one of the best comics I've read on or off the internet: The Spiders. Saturday, August 10th, 2002 1:56am More information About this site Adactio is the online home of Jeremy Keith, a web developer and author living and working in Brighton, England. Get in touch Customise Choose a theme... [default ] [Go!] ? This is the plain vanilla look. Search Search the journal: [ ] Go! * Peruse the archive * Browse the tags Subscribe You can subscribe to the journal RSS feed or you can follow @adactioJournal on Twitter. Recommended reading Hand-picked highlights from the archive. * Split Materials and tools; client and server; declarative and imperative; inclusion and privilege. * Web! What is it good for? Not absolutely nothing, but not absolutely everything either. * Seams There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. * Hyperdrive Last night in San Francisco. * Design doing The opposite of design thinking. * Iron Man and me The story of how one of my Flickr pictures came to be used in a Hollywood movie. (c) 1998 - 2021 Jeremy Keith.