"Long Live The Web" by Tim Berners-Lee
Reading Response
Summary
“Long Live The Web” is an article by Tim Berners-Lee who is the inventor of the world wide web, the HTML mark up language, the URL system, and HTTP, so yeah pretty big deal. In this article, Berners-Lee highlights the challenges the web faces in regards to its role as the catalyst for innovation and its the right for us the general public to use and access it. This article is a call to action, reminding us that the web isn’t some natural phenomenon we have no control over, instead it is the embodiment of the potential for collaboration without borders.
Web as a Democratic Platform
“The Web is now more critical to free speech than any other medium.” In many ways the Web is the realization of the saying “Power to the People”. The web is largely driven by its users; it is us who hold the power over what gets seen, what gets shared, what gets deleted. While I do believe that regulations and standards for the internet need to be put in place and upheld in order to maintain internet safety, the openness and freedom that comes with the internet needs to be protected as well.
Universality & Open Standards
This article highlights 2 major principles that allowed the Web to become what it is today; universality and open standards. Universality means that everyone needs to be able to gain access to the web no matter the hardware that they use, the language that they speak, the country that they live in, even the disability they might have. Open standards mean that the standards required to add to the web are readily available and free to use for developers and users.
These 2 principles are key to making sure that the conversations and sharing of information that happens every day on the web doesn’t exclude anyone. This, in turn, can help drive innovation forward because the resources available to anyone at any given time are practically boundless.
Capitalism - the root of all evil
However, the two principles mentioned above are under attack by companies to make more money. A lot of companies are collecting and snooping data from its users without their knowledge and consent. And some ISPs are limiting bandwidth when their users try to connect to a webpage that isn’t affiliated with them. Some governments are also infringing upon their citizen’s right for privacy and access to the internet. With the web gaining more and more influence over every aspect of our lives, any attempt to gain too much power in the internet should be met with substantial backlash from us, the users.
The Future
With how fast the internet is growing, changing, and evolving, it is exciting yet also terrifying to think about what it may become in the future. But one thing for sure is that the principles that make the internet open need to be respected and built upon to make sure it remains neutral and for the public. Some trends for the future of the web include open data, social machines, web science, and free bandwidth.