Twenty-five years ago today, I filed the proposal for what was to become the World Wide Web.
My boss dubbed it ‘vague but exciting’. Luckily, he thought enough of the idea to allow me to quietly work on it on the side.
In the following quarter-century, the Web has changed the world in ways that I never could have imagined. There have been many exciting advances. It has generated billions of dollars in economic growth, turned data into the gold of the 21st century, unleashed innovation in education and healthcare, whittled away geographic and social boundaries, revolutionised the media, and forced a reinvention of politics in many countries by enabling constant two-way dialogue between the rulers and the ruled.
There are a few principles which allowed the web, as a platform, to support such growth. By design, the Web is universal, royalty-free, open and decentralised. Thousands of people worked together to build the early Web in an amazing, non-national spirit of collaboration; tens of thousands more invented the applications and services that make it so useful to us today, and there is still room for each one of us to create new things on and through the Web. This is for everyone.
Today, and throughout this year, we should celebrate the Web’s first 25 years. But though the mood is upbeat, we also know we are not done. We have much to do for the Web to reach its full potential. We must continue to defend its core principles and tackle some key challenges. To name just three:
- How do we connect the nearly two-thirds of the planet who can’t yet access the Web?
- Who has the right to collect and use our personal data, for what purpose and under what rules?
- How do we create a high-performance open architecture that will run on any device, rather than fall back into proprietary alternatives?
There are no easy answers to these, and many other questions. Remember though that the Web was built by all of us, and so we all can, and should, play a role in defining its future.
The Latest on: Internet Freedom
via Google News
The Latest on: Internet Freedom
- New IT Rules Can Undermine Media Freedom: Editors Guildon March 6, 2021 at 8:09 pm
The Editors Guild of India on Saturday voiced concern over the government's new Information Technology rules, saying the guidelines will 'fundamentally alter' and put 'unreasonable restrictions' on ...
- Bella Thorne slams Big Tech companies after YouTube restricts music video: 'It's endangering American freedom'on March 6, 2021 at 2:25 pm
Bella Thorne is sounding off against Big Tech companies after YouTube removed her new music video before placing it back on the platform with restrictions.
- Speedify Supports Internet Freedom in Myanmar; Provides VPN to 500,000 Userson March 5, 2021 at 9:59 am
Hundreds of thousands in Myanmar have turned to Speedify to encrypt their data, improve their internet connections and access the free and open internet.
- Maryland's tax on digital ads could reshape internet — if it survives legal challengeson March 5, 2021 at 8:45 am
The nation’s first tax on digital ads, targeted at big tech companies, is slated to go into effect next week — but a lawsuit filed by a group of businesses and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hopes to ...
- Global Freedom Is Losing Groundon March 4, 2021 at 8:00 pm
Democracies are going to have to do better at exercising their core liberal values to prove their worth and win back support.
- Debating the Contours of Internet Freedom in Indiaon March 4, 2021 at 12:51 am
The Dialogue, a Delhi based Tech Policy think tank, organized a National Debate Competition on 'Internet Freedom' on February 27th and 28th in collaboration with Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, ...
- Staff of Cuban press freedom group ICLEP lose internet service, fear targeted disruptionon March 3, 2021 at 10:44 pm
Cuban authorities must ensure that journalists and staff at the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP) are able to access the internet, and should allow its journalists to ...
- Why is Myanmar’s military blocking the internet?on March 3, 2021 at 10:12 pm
Generals have banned Facebook and other popular platforms and imposed an internet blackout for the past 18 nights.
- New intermediary rules jeopardize the security of Indian internet userson March 3, 2021 at 2:13 am
Proposed Indian internet regulations threaten to undermine computer security and provide a troubling example for other backsliding democracies looking to crack down on online speech.
- Chinese regime further suppresses internet freedom of speechon March 2, 2021 at 8:07 pm
The Chinese Communist Party is terrified that the working class and the rural poor could be radicalized by “unlicensed” political commentary by internet bloggers that does not parrot the party line.
via Bing News
