This QCon joint interview with Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith on Tools for the Open Web begins with a definition of the Open Web, moves on to a discussion of "tinkerability," explores the diversity of contributors to the Web as platform, FireBug, the future of tools, the impact of HTML 5, and the evolution of Javascript.
Dion and Ben are leads for Mozilla's Developer Tools Lab. Although they were non-committal as to any speciific tools we might see in 2009, they stressed their desire to be a "central source of information for open web developers ... a hub where the community can get together ... [and to be] where you can get to centralized documentation."
The possible evolution of Javascript and the release of HTML 5 are discussed, bringing out several points of view as to the potential costs and benefits.
View this interview for some timely insights.