In an important article Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, addresses current and future issues of the web and its services. He reminds us that we should be careful not to create walled communities or closed content silos, as done by social network sites, such as facebook, or companies such as apple. Open standards, documents and data have been driving innovation and hence the web’s development for the last 20 years. And we have to make sure that we keep the web open, independent and accessible to all.
From Scientific American:
“Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality
By Tim Berners-Lee November 22, 2010The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990. It consisted of one Web site and one browser, which happened to be on the same computer. The simple setup demonstrated a profound concept: that any person could share information with anyone else, anywhere. In this spirit, the Web spread quickly from the grassroots up. Today, at its 20th anniversary, the Web is thoroughly integrated into our daily lives. We take it for granted, expecting it to “be there” at any instant, like electricity.
The Web evolved into a powerful, ubiquitous tool because it was built on egalitarian principles and because thousands of individuals, universities and companies have worked, both independently and together as part of the World Wide Web Consortium, to expand its capabilities based on those principles.”
more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web