Reading the article by Tim Berners-Lee, I couldn’t help but smile at the words that I was consuming. For someone to have created such a revolutionary piece of technology to function over the internet, it’s awesome to see his rebellious reasons for doing so. One would imagine that someone would have tried to monetize such an amazing feat. Not Berners-Lee. He wanted the Web to be an open forum of ideas all interlinked to one another without anyone owning any rights to anything!
His truly egalitarian mindset of what the Web should be must be frightening for those in power. By allowing anyone to access any link with a URI, the dissemination of information and knowledge is literally endless. Governments plainly don’t like that. Keeping their subjects under a bit of a vail is key to control. Look at the Dark Ages where Science was stifled in the name of Christianity. Those holding knowledge were seen as heretics because they threatened to upset the balance of power that was in place. The story remains the same today, except now this control and monetization is in the digital form.
I believe that what Berners-Lee envisioned is still somewhat in place in that there is just so much information on the Web that it makes censorship difficult. Not to mention that if something like that were to get out, the amount of clicks such a story would produce would bring the public to an uproar. This is the time folks. The time to garner support by millions in a matter of seconds. I’m not saying that extreme political action can be acquired through the mindless “Likes” on Facebook but it’s a good way to spread information, linking it to other, more in-depth sites. In the age of the Web, we have the power to force transparency from our government and make them return to being servants to the public, not the other way around.
This is my Web just as it belongs to anyone else. We need to force issues into the light. Hold those in power accountable for their actions that inevitably affect all of us. The Web is our portal to literally everything, everywhere. Data builds knowledge. Knowledge builds understanding. Understanding brings wisdom. Wisdom is power. It is the power to decide on your own how to best live your life for the benefit of your family, friends and community. The Web is our resource to unlimited data therefore unlimited knowledge. How we use that rests on our shoulders. Every click, every post and every bit of data received should be a profound moment because knowing we have the power to be our own masters on the Web is truly a rebel’s cause.