ChicagoWebConf 2015

You probably don't know WebRTC as much as you think. I'm not surprised. WebRTC is both amazing and terrifying. Developing WebRTC applications is like getting into a time machine and stepping out into a future of hoverboards and flying cars, then being zapped back to a hellish alternate reality where JavaScript normalization never existed.

No real standards exist between browser vendors. Browsers like Chrome and Firefox have inconsistent WebRTC features. Forget about Safari and IE because WebRTC doesn't work there at all without third party plugins of which there are a whopping one. Yet, even with the hair-pulling browser support today, you don't have to look any further than Amazon's Kindle Mayday service to realize WebRTC will be a vital tool for businesses. So it's important to figure out how to do it right.

How to integrate WebRTC into your application the right way? WebRTC relies on three things: a browser, ICE negotiations with STUN & TURN and signaling. If you want to get this right, you must forget about WebRTC being about the browser only. You will need a multi-disciplinary team of engineers - typical web stack expertise will not be enough.

WebRTC is but one ingredient to a successful real-time web recipe. It's the difference between a "salad" made of iceberg lettuce and soggy tomatoes and a "salad" made of a, kale and fresh heirloom tomatoes. You want the latter and to do that you need technologies like pubsub, media servers and telephony in addition to the browser.

This talk discusses lessons learned in the trenches building a next-generation real-time network at Respoke. In particular, I discuss the bad parts of WebRTC and why it will be so crucial to business success. The talk further suggests how to get WebRTC right and considerations for building a successful real-time application.