Sir Tim’s original proposal for an information management system 30 years ago, sees more than half the world online today. opening up resources and giving many the opportunity to have a voice, however, Sir Tim says there is still a long way to go, looking to the next 30 years to make the world wide web a better place.
What are the pitfalls currently with the world wide web?
The web is being misused by many who wish to take advantage of chinks in the armour, opening up opportunities for cybercrime, allowing unscrupulous predators to gain access to children, and groups who wish to spread the word of violence.
In Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s letter published he outlines three sources of dysfunction affecting the web 30 years down the line.
taken from his letter which can be viewed in full here
- Deliberate, malicious intent, such as state-sponsored hacking and attacks, criminal behaviour, and online harassment.
- System design that creates perverse incentives where user value is sacrificed, such as ad-based revenue models that commercially reward clickbait and the viral spread of misinformation.
- Unintended negative consequences of benevolent design, such as the outraged and polarised tone and quality of online discourse.
Whilst Sir Tim acknowledges that eradicating the first issue will be impossible he does believe that new laws and policies should be put into place to help minimise such behaviour. Despite being 30 years down the line we still do not seem to have the right policies and laws in place for current times, which en corporate the internet.
the other two issues Sir Tim says are a matter of changing systems, and carrying out research to see where tweaks can be implemented.
What is the Web Foundation?
The World Wide Web Foundation was created by Sir Tim in 2009. It is an independent, international organisation promoting, and fighting for digital equality, to make the web a basic right for all.
The foundation works hard to try to change government and business policies, the organisation has many different people, representing many different cultures, with over half of the senior managers being women.
Sir Tim in his recent letter is calling on all of us to come together as a global web community. He wants to see everyone being able to access the web, something that he has always strived for from the very beginning.
See below an introduction Video to the world wide web foundation:
main image credited to CERN
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