Tim Berners-Lee On the Future of the Web

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the pioneer responsible for the first successful communication between an HTTP client and a server, making him the founding father of the World Wide Web. Mental Floss magazine has a good run down of Tim’s thoughts on the current state of the WWW, and where it’s headed next.

He notes that the web can propagate misinformation very easily, and that we need some kind of ratings system to assure a site’s trustworthiness He also feels that the web is currently “for the West by the West,” and needs to be designed around the unique needs of emerging parts of the world, and for all the different technologies people access it on. Berners-Lee is also staunchly against any kind of scheme that would reject net neutrality.

Mental Floss reports:

Various proposals have been made in the U.S. to create a two-tiered internet, in which users would have to pay more to have access to the whole shebang that we currently enjoy. Sir Tim thinks this is a terrible idea, and that implementing it would lead to a “dark period.” “What’s very important from my point of view is that there is one web,” he said. “Anyone that tries to chop it into two will find that their piece looks very boring.” The status quo is ideal; right now “you get this tremendous serendipity where I can search the internet and come across a site that I did not set out to look for.”

Mental Floss: “According to Tim: Prognostications from the Web’s Inventor”