The web’s creator looks to reinvent it
The Ford Foundation Internet Freedom team supported this conference, where creators of and evangelists for the open internet came together to explore ways that a decentralized web could solve some of the more vexing next generation internet challenges such as anonymity, link permanence, access to knowledge and competition.
“The web is already decentralized,” Mr. Berners-Lee said. “The problem is the dominance of one search engine, one big social network, one Twitter for microblogging. We don’t have a technology problem, we have a social problem.”
One that can, perhaps, be solved by more technology.
Published in the New York Times | June 7, 2016
The Web’s Creator Looks to Reinvent It
By Quentin Hardy
SAN FRANCISCO — Twenty-seven years ago, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web as a way for scientists to easily find information. It has since become the world’s most powerful medium for knowledge, communications and commerce — but that doesn’t mean Mr. Berners-Lee is happy with all of the consequences.
“It controls what people see, creates mechanisms for how people interact,” he said of the modern day web. “It’s been great, but spying, blocking sites, repurposing people’s content, taking you to the wrong websites — that completely undermines the spirit of helping people create.”
So on Tuesday, Mr. Berners-Lee gathered in San Francisco with other top computer scientists — including Brewster Kahle, head of the nonprofit Internet Archive and an internet activist — to discuss a new phase for the web.
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