I would like to offer some of my experience of having designed the original foundations of the Web, what I've learned from watching it grow, and some of the exciting and challenging developments I see in the future of the Web. It has become a public resource upon which many individuals, communities, companies and governments depend. And, from its beginning, it is a medium that has been created and sustained by the cooperative efforts of people all over the world.
The special care we extend to the World Wide Web comes from a long tradition that democracies have of protecting their vital communications channels. Of course, the imperative to assure the free flow of information has only grown given the global nature of the Internet and Web.
The success of the World Wide Web has depended on three critical factors: 1) unlimited links from any part of the Web to any other; 2) open technical standards as the basis for continued growth of innovation applications; and 3) separation of network layers, enabling independent innovation for network transport, routing and information applications. The last decade has seen so many new ecommerce startups, some of which have formed the foundations of the new economy, that we now expect that the next blockbuster Web site just appear on the Web without any difficulty.
The Web has grown because it's easy to write a Web page and easy to link to other pages. Starting with one page and one site just about 15 years ago, there are now over 100,000,000 web sites with an estimated over 8 billion publicly accessible pages as of 2005. Adding a Web page requires no coordination with any central authority, and has an extremely low, often zero, additional cost.
A current example of the low barriers to reading, writing and linking on the Web is the world of blogs. Blogs hardly existed five years ago, but have become an enormously popular means of expression for everything from politics to local news, to art and science. The low barriers to publishing pages and abundance of linking ability have come together, most recently with blogs, to create an open platform for expression and exchange of all kinds.
The universality and flexibility of the Web's linking architecture has a unique capacity to break down boundaries of distance, language, and domains of knowledge. These traditional barriers fall away because the cost and complexity of a link is unaffected by most boundaries that divide other media. This universality has been the key enabler of innovation on the Web and will continue to be so in the future.
So how do we plan for a better future, better for society?
We ensure that that both technological protocols and social conventions respect basic values. That Web remains a universal platform: independent of any specific hardware device, software platform, language, culture, or disability.
By adherence to these principles we can ensure that Web technology, like the Internet, continues to serve as a foundation for bigger things to come. It is my hope, Chairman Markey, members of the committee, that an understanding of the nature of the Web will guide you in your future work, and that the public at large can count on you to hold these values to the best of your ability.My Response
I think Sir Timothy Berners-Lee makes plenty of good points in his speech and it was very interesting to read what he thinks of the change in the World Wide Web since he was one of the first people to use it. I also appreciated how he mentioned the newer and modern characteristics on the internet to relate to the younger generation to keep them interested. I think he has delivered a successful speech and i am sure the Chairman will agree with many of his points.
