4 ms·

Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web

17 points by kqr2 17y ago

Create 17y ago
The bunch has lost the plot years ago: the hijacking of HTML and [ecma|java]script has done already the damage to the initial "universal access" that made the Web popular in the first place. Try browsing this web without subordinating yourself to Adobe Inc.'s unilaterally imposed licensing...
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  As a beta tester for the original Mozilla when there were about 10 websites (and I was too unimaginative to exploit it profitably), I had trouble selling people on the idea at first, because that functionality existed (in distributed form) with WAIS, Archie, Veronica, and something else whose name I forget right now. There was a parallel with the problems you mention in that the www looked like eye candy but didn't deliver much obvious new functionality; however, the eye candy served the important function of making things much more attractive and accessible to an audience, whereas effectively using the services mentioned above required a kind of command-line machismo that most people had no wish to acquire - and so those services which delivered information of equivalent or better quality to that available on the web withered away because their cost:benefit ratio was too high. I think TB-L is on the right track here because although much content of value is silo-ed in multiple ways, once there is enough good open-source (or 'linked data' or whatever you like to call it) material available, people will either abandon or never get into the websites which provide it.
  - wheels 17y ago
    once there is enough good open-source (or 'linked data' or whatever you like to call it) material available As far as I understand things, linked data is just a euphemism for RDF (or RDF + microformats), and there's no shortage of open source RDF implementations.
    - CaptSolo 17y ago
      http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html
pmjordan 17y ago
I'm in a bad mood today, but this made me chuckle: Talks Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web You either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of the Adobe Flash Player. To view this video you need to get the latest Flash player.
- pj 17y ago
  Yep, ... that's why I don't like flash!
pj 17y ago
In an advertising dominated web, the product is the view of the advertisement. The advertisement is displayed in the interface. The reason the data is not available outside the interface, is because the advertisement will not be seen. Facebook cannot open its data, because if its data was open, the ads on the Facebook pages would not be seen by the users of the data, and therefore Facebook would not make money. We can only open data when we change the business model on top of the data.
- mojuba 17y ago
  Good point, but I don't think TBL or whoever else started building the Web with him at the time thought about advertisement or how content providers could make money. Same story now. I think we can leave that problem to those interested and surely enough ads will find their way to any new medium. It's a technical problem literally.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    Governments don't have this issue. Raw data from government should be posted on the web. We've already paid for it, after all.

17 points by kqr2 17y ago

The bunch has lost the plot years ago: the hijacking of HTML and [ecma|java]script has done already the damage to the initial "universal access" that made the Web popular in the first place. Try browsing this web without subordinating yourself to Adobe Inc.'s unilaterally imposed licensing...

anigbrowl 17y ago
As a beta tester for the original Mozilla when there were about 10 websites (and I was too unimaginative to exploit it profitably), I had trouble selling people on the idea at first, because that functionality existed (in distributed form) with WAIS, Archie, Veronica, and something else whose name I forget right now. There was a parallel with the problems you mention in that the www looked like eye candy but didn't deliver much obvious new functionality; however, the eye candy served the important function of making things much more attractive and accessible to an audience, whereas effectively using the services mentioned above required a kind of command-line machismo that most people had no wish to acquire - and so those services which delivered information of equivalent or better quality to that available on the web withered away because their cost:benefit ratio was too high. I think TB-L is on the right track here because although much content of value is silo-ed in multiple ways, once there is enough good open-source (or 'linked data' or whatever you like to call it) material available, people will either abandon or never get into the websites which provide it.
- wheels 17y ago
  once there is enough good open-source (or 'linked data' or whatever you like to call it) material available As far as I understand things, linked data is just a euphemism for RDF (or RDF + microformats), and there's no shortage of open source RDF implementations.
  - CaptSolo 17y ago
    http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

pmjordan 17y ago

I'm in a bad mood today, but this made me chuckle: Talks Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web You either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of the Adobe Flash Player. To view this video you need to get the latest Flash player.

pj 17y ago
Yep, ... that's why I don't like flash!

pj 17y ago

In an advertising dominated web, the product is the view of the advertisement. The advertisement is displayed in the interface. The reason the data is not available outside the interface, is because the advertisement will not be seen. Facebook cannot open its data, because if its data was open, the ads on the Facebook pages would not be seen by the users of the data, and therefore Facebook would not make money. We can only open data when we change the business model on top of the data.

mojuba 17y ago
Good point, but I don't think TBL or whoever else started building the Web with him at the time thought about advertisement or how content providers could make money. Same story now. I think we can leave that problem to those interested and surely enough ads will find their way to any new medium. It's a technical problem literally.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  Governments don't have this issue. Raw data from government should be posted on the web. We've already paid for it, after all.