As the Web Turns 25, Sir Tim Berners-Lee Calls For A Web Magna Carta 80
Today marks the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee's "Information
Management: A Proposal," containing the ideas that led to the
World Wide Web. From its humble beginnings as a way to store linked
documents at CERN to... well, you're reading this now. To celebrate, the
W3C is encouraging
people to post their birthday greetings. Quoting Tim Berners-Lee:
"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."
Martin S. and JestersGrind both wrote in to note that Tim
Berners-Lee is calling for the creation of a Web Magna Carta. Again Quoting Tim Berners-Lee "It's time for
us to make a big communal decision," he said. "In front of us are two
roads - which way are we going to go? Are we going to continue on the
road and just allow the governments to do more and more and more
control - more and more surveillance? Or are we going to set up a
bunch of values? Are we going to set up something like a Magna Carta
for the world wide web and say, actually, now it's so important, so
much part of our lives, that it becomes on a level with human
rights?"
How has the rise of the web affected your life? Also check out the CERN line mode browser simulation of the first web site.
Nice idea but.... (Score:4, Informative)
It would be unenforcable (Score:5, Informative)
Therefore its a meaningless gesture and nothing more than a publicity stunt for the anniversary.
And equating it to human rights is an insult to all the people in the world currently having their rights abused or taken away completely. Oddly enough billions of people manage to live quite fulfilled lives without going near a web browser. The same can't be said for those being oppressed ,tortured, starved or massacred. While I respect Berners-Lee, I think he's lost a bit of perspective on things.
Re:Nice idea but.... (Score:5, Informative)
Berners-Lee is an Englishman, a Londoner for God's sake. You'd think he'd know the history of his own city and country.
You're right. The Magna Carta was practically signed at swordpoint. And, more importantly, it wasn't a charter of rights for all humanity: it was principally a charter of the rights and powers of the nobility: the barons on the non-pointy end of the swords. In this sense, perhaps the megacorp oligarchs could get a Magna Carta, but it wouldn't make a damn sniff of difference to us peasants.