This paper frames the aims of Webstrates in the context of classical Hypermedia: recombining the viewer and the editor, and using transclusion to add some of the more complex representations (e.g. bidirectional links).
It lays out an ambitious vision: “Development of Webstrates currently requires experience in Web development and a certain proficiency in using the developer tools of the browser, but we can easily imagine webstrates developed for end-user authorship akin to HyperCard and beyond.”
And it adds two more examples to those in Klokmose, C. N., Eagan, J. R., Baader, S., Mackay, W., & Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (2015). Webstrates: Shareable Dynamic Media. Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology, 280–290: a multi-user PDF annotation app, and a web annotator with bidirectional links.
The modern Web browser remains largely a tool for brows- ing, but it has gained notable functionality over the years, e.g., access to developer tools for inspection, debugging, and manipulation of Web pages. Even so, most Web development still takes place outside the browser, working with editors and servers. As shall be seen below, we believe that this need no longer be the case, and by focusing on developing for the browser in the browser (and by the people), it is possible to once again shift the way we have come to use computers.
Q. Why was Webstrates centralized as of 2016?
A. To avoid cross-origin iframe access limitations.