Web inventor fears for the future

Interesting but a bit paranoid and non-descriptive, agreed?
 
I have to say that I was a bit confused myself.

What is the actual problem with the current growth of the web? The fact that it is primarily based on the free flow of information? I thought this was a good thing. Is the article proposing that we censure the web or what???
 
How about the deluge of debunker 911 sites posing as conspiracists sites?

Or the american military blocking access to democratic party sites?

Or the wish to shut down anything contrary to "their" point of view?

TBL invented the internet for freedom of information - if the US Gov had its way they would prefer that information not be free and only support their agenda.
 
I put the non descriptiveness down to the news agency personally. I may have an opportunity to have supper with him in the next few months :D will ask a few questions - mayb you can forward some to me Ant...
no seriously - my boss and him are old colleagues - we may be at the same hotel in Nov/Dec.

But yeah - on the topic - all debate is based on opinion, and it is common knowlege (or is more common knowlege) that the loudest voices are not necessarily the correct ones... but that doesn't explain how indoctrination can come through an environment like the net, having said that, I believe Tim is pretty intelligent, so I would hear him out first.

Maybe the concern is that it is a lawless environment where other types of crime can proliferate... thinking of character assassination, blackmail, abuse, etc though.
 
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Onepostwonder said:
.Maybe the concern is that it is a lawless environment where other types of crime can proliferate... thinking of character assassination, blackmail, abuse, etc though.
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Interesting point of view!

(though) the story does open with:

"The British developer of the world wide web says he is worried about the way it could be used to spread misinformation and "undemocratic forces"."

Would those fall under "character assassination, blackmail, abuse?"
 
Actaully, the dude is looking for some attention, since he hasnt/didnt get enough acknowlegement/money for creating the www.

So he has resorted to blurting out politian type talk.
 
Boodles said:
Actaully, the dude is looking for some attention, since he hasnt/didnt get enough acknowlegement/money for creating the www.

So he has resorted to blurting out politian type talk.
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No, he was paid a substantial amount of money 'as a token of appreciation.' Don't remember the details offhand. Plus his knighthood also has small perks. Voted Greatest Briton and various payouts (though these are not the ones I was thinking of.)

The inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has won a prestigious award which comes with a prize bag of one million euros (£671,000).

ah...

On 15 April, for his invention of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee was awarded the first ever Millennium Technology Prize by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation, which recognises technological innovations of lasting benefit to society.
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He will be presented with the award, which is accompanied by one million euros, by Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, at the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki on 15 June 2004.
Tim Berners-Lee receives the Millennium Technology Prize

There have been others.

Time Magazine included Berners-Lee in its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, published in 1999.
wikipedia

He has no need of politicians.
 
Yeah

kilo39 said:
Interesting point of view!

(though) the story does open with:

"The British developer of the world wide web says he is worried about the way it could be used to spread misinformation and "undemocratic forces"."

Would those fall under "character assassination, blackmail, abuse?"
Click to expand...

Which is why my comment that I believe the article to be skewed by the reporters to create their own hype and debate thereby achieving success in publishing.
 
If Sir Tim Berners-Lee was correctly quoted by the BBC, then one can safely assume that TB-L carefully chose to use the words "undemocratic forces", and since there isn't a clear definition of what TB-L meant by that, we can only speculate...

I speculate that the following examples might fall into TB-L's category of "undemocratic forces":
  • National and ingrained censorship by the Chinese guavamint;
  • The likes of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, etc that have decided to facilitate censorship imposed by the Chinese guavamint;
  • Racist Supremacist sites that by definition do not promote a democratic viewpoint, and [probably] in many cases amount to hate speech & incitement of racial violence;
  • Propaganda: e.g. the whole of telkom.co.za, telkomsa.net, saix.net, doc.gov.za, etc;
  • The list of possibilities is endless...
 
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Good point(s) IC.
Let's face it - `extremists' usually don't want to be objective - just read the many political and religous threads on this forum. Basically we all gravitate towards news that interests us and feeds our point of view. That has always been the case I guess, but the net just makes it that much easier. And if your POV includes violence / hatred and criminal acts...
 
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