When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free.
Today, the British computer scientist’s creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people – and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended.
In Australia to promote his book, This is for Everyone, Berners-Lee is reflecting on what his invention has become – and how he and a community of collaborators can put the power of the web back into the hands of its users.
Berners-Lee describes his excitement in the earliest years of the web as “uncontainable”. Approaching 40 years on, a rebellion is brewing among himself and a community of like-minded activists and developers.
“We can fix the internet … It’s not too late,” he writes, describing his mission as a “battle for the soul of the web”.
Berners-Lee traces the first corruption of the web to the commercialisation of the domain name system, which he believes would have served web users better had it been managed by a nonprofit in the public interest. Instead, he says, in the 1990s the .com space was pounced on by “charlatans”.
I just think you are an idiot. You keep kind of proving that…
Is this based on ICANN’s assessment, DSM-5, or your classism?
Mostly based on your lack of reading comprehension, and assholery, but also your “i am very smart” sophomoric use of terms like “classism”.
In fact, I would recommend you use the first part of that “Class” as in you should take some classes.
You know nothing about a subject, call someone names, meander thoughts about classism and accessibility. So you are basically a whiny asshole. Did they deserve to get lumped into your rant about something they had nothing to do with? Go read a book.
lmk when you are done ghost editing this comment.
I have a “stupid question” to ask.
ghost editing!