Worried by the web
Wired UK editor, David Rowan, conducted a live interview with the web’s founder, Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee said that the first problem he faced with the World Wide Web was how to communicate it. Like many great ideas, his thinking for the web was concocted over coffee. Next, he wrote a memo.
“I sent it around. Nothing happened.”
When he asked a fellow scientist and recipient of the memo what his advice was, he was told: ‘Maybe you should write a memo.’ If there was ever a sign that this digital network had a place in the modern world, it was the ineffectiveness of paper-based communications to get it up-and-running.
I recently joined a live audience alongside digital luminaries from Martha Lane-Fox to model-turned-learn to code champion Lily Cole. We listened — and live tweeted — as David Rowan, editor of Wired UK, interviewed Tim Berners-Lee to celebrate the web’s first quarter century and mark the publication of the magazine’s latest issue, where he adorns the front cover.
The scientific community has a reputation for being insular. David Rowan asked the web’s founder, Berners-Lee: was the digital network originally intended only for scientists?
This is a commonplace concern from startups to large corporations releasing a new product or service. Market research may point to a niche audience being the market to attack first. Berners-Lee, despite realising how he would initially have to target his message — by writing and pitching a scientific paper — had ambitions way beyond the lab at CERN.
I knew the web had to be universal.
He went onto say that the web’s initial “acceptable use policy” was that it was “not for commercial purposes”. Far from sticking to that policy, Berners-Lee believes there should be as much competition on the web as possible — to prevent the likes of Google and Facebook from dominating. He was non-committal as to whether the web’s biggest companies should face regulation to curtail their perceived dominance. He rather pointed out that throughout the web’s history, firms such as AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo! have far-from holding onto their positions of power, been successfully challenged by upstarts.
Communications challenges
It’s not companies that have the greatest communications challenge in regards to the web. Tim Berners-Lee is “worried” about the web’s future. Governments are the main reason for his disquiet.
He fears a “balkanised” web, with snooping his prime concern and censorship also a core worry. On the topic of NSA and GCHQ surveillance — even if their powers are curtailed, Berners-Lee believes any new checks and balances will be side-stepped by operators within those agencies. Like many on the web, spies will innovate their way around challenges. Have we only seen the tip of the iceberg from this quarter? Are government communicators ready for what is possibly yet to come?
On the role of the state and internet service providers (ISPs) preventing their populations and consumers from having the freedom to choose the content they see, Berners-Lee said “I don’t like the idea of web filtering by default” but conceded that “I’m happy for people to filter out child pornography”.
Hacktivists also come under the scrutiny of Berners-Lee. Whereas he feels “we need more hackers” — explaining the essence of a hack going back to the early days of the web is a “prank or a cool near thing” — he suggested the “geek community” should think more about their responsibility. How their actions impact on all others and how their work is communicated, reported and perceived. He “respects” the Anonymous network but says its so-called members’ denial of service (DOS) attacks are ‘appalling’.
Opportunities and regrets
Tim Berners-Lee called for companies and nations to advocate interoperability, open standards, open not nation-based browsing. He calls this the “decentralised web” and commented that the Internet of Things is “very exciting” particularly in the areas it can benefit the public good such as in healthcare, energy and through use of open data. Berners-Lee was talking just three months after addressing Hanover client, the Open Government Partnership, on precisely these topics.
Looking back, does Tim Berners-Lee have any regrets? “I’d have got rid of the // after the colon. You don’t really need it.” I think we can forgive him there. On a similar topic, as the latest edition of UK Wired points out, it’s quicker to say ‘World Wide Web’ out loud than ‘WWW’.
In its first quarter century, the web’s users and those that seek to control it, have often taken the longer way around. As its anniversary fast-approaches on 13th March, now’s the time to reflect and look ahead. How can we benefit from the web even more? For starters, we can communicate about the web and via the web much better.
Originally published as Communicating the web at 25 on the Hanover Communications website
