TED2014
Tim Berners-Lee: A Magna Carta for the web
Filmed:
Readability: 3.4
1,149,270 views
Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web 25 years ago. So it’s worth a listen when he warns us: There’s a battle ahead. Eroding net neutrality, filter bubbles and centralizing corporate control all threaten the web’s wide-open spaces. It’s up to users to fight for the right to access and openness. The question is, What kind of Internet do we want?
Tim Berners-Lee - Inventor
Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. He leads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), overseeing the Web's standards and development. Full bio
Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. He leads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), overseeing the Web's standards and development. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
TED is 30.
0
895
1648
00:14
The world wide web is celebrating this month
1
2543
2638
00:17
its 25th anniversary.
2
5181
2272
00:19
So I've got a question for you.
3
7453
2689
00:22
Let's talk about the journey, mainly about the future.
4
10142
4824
00:26
Let's talk about the state.
5
14966
1715
00:28
Let's talk about what sort of a web we want.
6
16681
2314
00:30
So 25 years ago, then, I was working at CERN.
7
18995
3320
00:34
I got permission in the end after about a year
8
22315
2350
00:36
to basically do it as a side project.
9
24665
2632
00:39
I wrote the code.
10
27297
1698
00:40
I was I suppose the first user.
11
28995
2149
00:43
There was a lot of concern
12
31144
2543
00:45
that people didn't want to pick it up
13
33687
1519
00:47
because it would be too complicated.
14
35206
1824
00:49
A lot of persuasion, a lot of wonderful
15
37030
1719
00:50
collaboration with other people,
16
38749
1710
00:52
and bit by bit, it worked.
17
40459
2429
00:54
It took off. It was pretty cool.
18
42888
1643
00:56
And in fact, a few years later in 2000,
19
44531
3217
00:59
five percent of the world population
20
47748
4202
01:03
were using the world wide web.
21
51950
1819
01:05
In 2007, seven years later, 17 percent.
22
53769
2711
01:08
In 2008, we formed the World Wide Web Foundation
23
56480
3340
01:11
partly to look at that
24
59820
1574
01:13
and worry about that figure.
25
61394
2850
01:16
And now here we are in 2014,
26
64244
2059
01:18
and 40 percent of the world
27
66303
2234
01:20
are using the world wide web, and counting.
28
68537
4016
01:24
Obviously it's increasing.
29
72553
2002
01:26
I want you to think about both sides of that.
30
74555
3408
01:29
Okay, obviously to anybody here at TED,
31
77963
2217
01:32
the first question you ask is, what can we do
32
80180
2983
01:35
to get the other 60 percent on board
33
83163
2056
01:37
as quickly as possible?
34
85219
1320
01:38
Lots of important things. Obviously
it's going to be around mobile.
it's going to be around mobile.
35
86539
2315
01:40
But also, I want you to think about the 40 percent,
36
88854
1980
01:42
because if you're sitting there yourself
37
90834
1710
01:44
sort of with a web-enabled life,
38
92544
2626
01:47
you don't remember things anymore,
39
95170
1296
01:48
you just look them up,
40
96466
1714
01:50
then you may feel that it's been a success
41
98180
4083
01:54
and we can all sit back.
42
102263
1980
01:56
But in fact, yeah, it's been a success,
43
104243
3083
01:59
there's lots of things, Khan Academy
44
107326
1946
02:01
for crying out loud, there's Wikipedia,
45
109272
2289
02:03
there's a huge number of free e-books
46
111561
1817
02:05
that you can read online,
47
113378
1406
02:06
lots of wonderful things for education,
48
114784
1768
02:08
things in many areas.
49
116552
1724
02:10
Online commerce has in some cases
50
118276
2402
02:12
completely turned upside down the
way commerce works altogether,
way commerce works altogether,
51
120678
2791
02:15
made types of commerce available
52
123469
1555
02:17
which weren't available at all before.
53
125024
2326
02:19
Commerce has been almost universally affected.
54
127350
3382
02:22
Government, not universally affected,
55
130732
2267
02:24
but very affected, and on a good day,
56
132999
2113
02:27
lots of open data, lots of e-government,
57
135112
2968
02:30
so lots of things which are visible
58
138080
2703
02:32
happening on the web.
59
140783
1628
02:34
Also, lots of things which are less visible.
60
142411
2111
02:36
The healthcare, late at night when they're worried
61
144522
2403
02:38
about what sort of cancer
62
146925
1711
02:40
somebody they care about might have,
63
148636
2125
02:42
when they just talk across the Internet to somebody
64
150761
5006
02:47
who they care about very much in another country.
65
155767
4509
02:52
Those sorts of things are not, they're not out there,
66
160276
4219
02:56
and in fact they've acquired
a certain amount of privacy.
a certain amount of privacy.
67
164495
3220
02:59
So we cannot assume that part of the web,
68
167715
2784
03:02
part of the deal with the web,
69
170499
1091
03:03
is when I use the web,
70
171590
1436
03:05
it's just a transparent, neutral medium.
71
173026
3390
03:08
I can talk to you over it without worrying
72
176416
2536
03:10
about what we in fact now know is happening,
73
178952
2859
03:13
without worrying about the fact
74
181811
2450
03:16
that not only will surveillance be happening
75
184261
1946
03:18
but it'll be done by people who may abuse the data.
76
186207
3038
03:21
So in fact, something we realized,
77
189245
1206
03:22
we can't just use the web,
78
190451
1409
03:23
we have to worry about
79
191860
1685
03:25
what the underlying infrastructure of the whole thing,
80
193545
3574
03:29
is it in fact of a quality that we need?
81
197119
4196
03:33
We revel in the fact that we
have this wonderful free speech.
have this wonderful free speech.
82
201315
4949
03:38
We can tweet, and oh, lots and lots of people
83
206264
3038
03:41
can see our tweets, except when they can't,
84
209302
2925
03:44
except when actually Twitter
is blocked from their country,
is blocked from their country,
85
212227
3351
03:47
or in some way the way we try to express ourselves
86
215578
3343
03:50
has put some information
about the state of ourselves,
about the state of ourselves,
87
218921
2935
03:53
the state of the country we live in,
88
221856
1363
03:55
which isn't available to anybody else.
89
223219
2484
03:57
So we must protest and make sure
90
225703
2981
04:00
that censorship is cut down,
91
228684
2124
04:02
that the web is opened up
92
230808
1574
04:04
where there is censorship.
93
232382
2457
04:06
We love the fact that the web is open.
94
234839
2710
04:09
It allows us to talk. Anybody can talk to anybody.
95
237549
2205
04:11
It doesn't matter who we are.
96
239754
1838
04:13
And then we join these big
97
241592
1337
04:14
social networking companies
98
242929
2653
04:17
which are in fact effectively built as silos,
99
245582
3362
04:20
so that it's much easier to talk to somebody
100
248944
1789
04:22
in the same social network
101
250733
1834
04:24
than it is to talk to somebody in a different one,
102
252567
2323
04:26
so in fact we're sometimes limiting ourselves.
103
254890
4374
04:31
And we also have, if you've read
the book about the filter bubble,
the book about the filter bubble,
104
259264
2926
04:34
the filter bubble phenomenon is that
105
262190
1968
04:36
we love to use machines
106
264158
1802
04:37
which help us find stuff we like.
107
265960
2132
04:40
So we love it when we're bathed in
108
268092
2342
04:42
what things we like to click on,
109
270434
1732
04:44
and so the machine automatically feeds us
110
272166
2160
04:46
the stuff that we like and we end up
111
274326
1484
04:47
with this rose-colored spectacles view of the world
112
275810
4261
04:52
called a filter bubble.
113
280071
2189
04:54
So here are some of the things which maybe
114
282260
1943
04:56
threaten the social web we have.
115
284203
3092
04:59
What sort of web do you want?
116
287295
1929
05:01
I want one which is not
fragmented into lots of pieces,
fragmented into lots of pieces,
117
289224
3438
05:04
as some countries have been suggesting
118
292662
2183
05:06
they should do in reaction to recent surveillance.
119
294845
3100
05:09
I want a web which has got, for example,
120
297945
3683
05:13
is a really good basis for democracy.
121
301628
2960
05:16
I want a web where I can use healthcare
122
304588
4577
05:21
with privacy and where there's a lot
123
309165
1755
05:22
of health data, clinical data is available
124
310920
2170
05:25
to scientists to do research.
125
313090
1930
05:27
I want a web where the other 60 percent
126
315020
3690
05:30
get on board as fast as possible.
127
318710
2340
05:33
I want a web which is such
a powerful basis for innovation
a powerful basis for innovation
128
321050
4618
05:37
that when something nasty happens,
129
325668
1383
05:39
some disaster strikes, that we can respond
130
327051
2329
05:41
by building stuff to respond to it very quickly.
131
329380
3780
05:45
So this is just some of the things that I want,
132
333160
2930
05:48
from a big list, obviously it's longer.
133
336090
2436
05:50
You have your list.
134
338526
1241
05:51
I want us to use this 25th anniversary
135
339767
2774
05:54
to think about what sort of a web we want.
136
342541
2993
05:57
You can go to webat25.org
137
345534
1699
05:59
and find some links.
138
347233
1003
06:00
There are lots of sites where people
139
348236
1056
06:01
have started to put together a Magna Carta,
140
349292
2712
06:04
a bill of rights for the web.
141
352004
1526
06:05
How about we do that?
142
353530
1513
06:07
How about we decide, these are, in a way,
143
355043
4627
06:11
becoming fundamental rights, the right
to communicate with whom I want.
to communicate with whom I want.
144
359670
3660
06:15
What would be on your list for that Magna Carta?
145
363330
1958
06:17
Let's crowdsource a Magna Carta
146
365288
2868
06:20
for the web.
147
368156
2242
06:22
Let's do that this year.
148
370398
2092
06:24
Let's use the energy from the 25th anniversary
149
372490
3307
06:27
to crowdsource a Magna Carta
150
375797
2612
06:30
to the web. (Applause)
151
378409
1482
06:31
Thank you. And do me a favor, will you?
152
379891
4506
06:36
Fight for it for me. Okay? Thanks.
153
384397
2566
06:38
(Applause)
154
386963
3987
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tim Berners-Lee - InventorTim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. He leads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), overseeing the Web's standards and development.
Why you should listen
In the 1980s, scientists at CERN were asking themselves how massive, complex, collaborative projects -- like the fledgling LHC -- could be orchestrated and tracked. Tim Berners-Lee, then a contractor, answered by inventing the World Wide Web. This global system of hypertext documents, linked through the Internet, brought about a massive cultural shift ushered in by the new tech and content it made possible: AOL, eBay, Wikipedia, TED.com...
Berners-Lee is now director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which maintains standards for the Web and continues to refine its design. Recently he has envisioned a "Semantic Web" -- an evolved version of the same system that recognizes the meaning of the information it carries. He's the 3Com Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at the MIT, where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is also a Professor in the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK.
Tim Berners-Lee | Speaker | TED.com