1. THE WEB: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD
'With a computer you can pretty much do anything and with the web you can do
almost anything you could possibly imagine' said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, chief architect
of the World Wide Web, at the start of this year's prestigious BCS Lovelace lecture,
held at London's Congress Centre. Justin Richards reports.
His lecture examined the ideas behind the origins of the internet and web and
considered how things might continue to develop in future.
The number of web pages now exceeds the population of the planet and this number
continues to grow exponentially, year on year. Berners-Lee indicated that more
should be done to monitor this growth and to nurture developments which improve
the user's experience. In fact web science is a new multi disciplinary science which
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is championing, although research projects under this banner
have only just begun.
Computer science can largely be seen as an engineering discipline, one originating
from physics, which itself has been known as philosophical engineering. By
examining microscopic rules and macroscopic behaviour one can describe and
define how computers operate and the connections between them.
Designing a system
A system exists when there is communication between two computers. Physics can
propose the microscopic model and relate it to the macroscopic purpose. The same
principle applies for computer science and the web. However, modelling will only
work so far before real world complications have to be factored in.
Creativity is crucial to engineering, but more importantly is collaboration between
people. For example, the first websites had instructions to make other web pages
and little else on them. However, it was because of this free advice that the internet
has grown as more and more enthusiasts took up the baton and ran with it. In fact
British Computer Society - The Web: Looking back, looking forward
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2. throughout the first three years the web saw constant exponential growth.
The twin 'magics' for the creation of the web have been collaboration and creativity.
However, even before the web there was the internet; 20 years before in fact.
Within this system the need to communicate was fulfilled by the use of internet
messaging, which operated on a store and forward SMTP principle, and was used
mainly by friendly academics.
Email developed between not only interconnected academics but also throughout the
general public as there became a greater dependence socially and for business on
technological communication. Unfortunately, with increased traffic comes increasing
numbers of problems including spam and cyber-crime.
WWW and universality
Tim's goal as a software engineer had simply been to help people communicate and
transfer data/information between one another efficiently.
He wanted to find a means to move documents between computers regardless of
what system they were running or what make of computer they had. Hence, by using
URL, HTTP, and HTML he was able to produce a Hypertext + net system which
retained incentives to help people further down the line.
Over time there was a massive web explosion but people still got lost within the maze
of the internet and couldn't find stuff. Tim wanted to get them there more efficiently.
The web had to be approachable and usable by all. Experts talked about mainframes
while most people just switched off - they didn't have access to mainframes at home
so it didn't apply to them.
Likewise he didn't want a situation where providers were charging users 2p for each
link used or to make it language specific. In designing the web Berners-Lee wanted
to ensure the quality of the information and universal access.
Layering
The internet was designed independent of application, regardless of whether a user
is sending an email, using FTP, or voice. Likewise the web was also designed to be
independent of application, whether it's being used for shopping, browsing,
participating or searching.
Right from its foundation technologies through to its ceiling technologies the web had
to be comprised of royalty free standards with a clean interface, one which makes no
assumptions and is flexible for all its user's needs.
Originally it was thought that one couldn't index the web. However, the Google
search engine has come close to doing so, by analysing the link structures and
maintaining them during its search.
Wiki phenomena
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3. Originally Tim didn't think that people would be able to read the web without being
able to create new pages themselves. Now users can edit pages, while sticking to
guidelines set by each particular wiki site.
The most famous example is Wikipedia, which has to be both democratic and
autocratic, where necessary, following running battles amongst its contributors. Wikis
force us to ask the question 'how can we all collectively be smarter than any one of
us?'
Semantic web
This term is actually about data sharing, where through the use of URLs and links
interested parties can share ontologies of information, and therefore gain access to
more relevant information. One aspect of the semantic web would be to use the
same URL for both latitude and longitude. This is still very much in its infancy and is
mainly used for social networking.
Within the semantic web everything has a URL. One doesn't just say 'colour' one
says example.com/2002/std6#col. You can make up your own terms and take
ownership of that term, thus emphasising the concept of definitive meaning. The
semantic web will provide layers for people to illustrate what web functions we can
trust.
What defines the web?
The web is where anything can be connected to anything else; hence the use of a
spider's web to illustrate it is probably not very accurate! Spider webs have a definite
centre, a definite pattern - the web does not.
Society consists of many different types of community at different levels. A universal
web must reflect this and include communities on many different levels, including
those relating to work, home and play. Society is complicated and the web must
mirror this. The web is structured on many levels and is perhaps best described as a
fractal tangle.
The question is who will create all the future ontologies? We can't assume that they
will be spread across orders of magnitude, and that if you do your bit others will do
theirs. However, on the positive side, creating ontologies requires a small, finite
amount of time, time which will shrink if we all collaborate.
Web science - the challenges
Techie geeks have created software products that don't always have the customer in
mind. The user-interface is a significant challenge since this should have a generality
enabling users to browse any data anywhere. They should also be able to
dynamically pick up from ontologies, allow independent control and 'blow
spreadsheet tools away' with their user-friendliness.
Other significant challenges include data policy (identity, privacy, and transparency);
resilience (social breakage, e.g. phishing: internet breakage, e.g. slash-dotting; web
British Computer Society - The Web: Looking back, looking forward
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4. breakage, e.g. Error 404); and new devices.
With the cost of pixels going down, we now have a greater diversity in their usage
with pixels now beginning to replace neon, for example in Times Square. There is
greater emphasis on portable devices, particularly in developing countries, and
mobile technology will continue to grow exponentially as the industry calls on outer
layers of web technology and transfers it into pixel technology.
Intercreativity
By creating together, both the top and bottom magics can be brought to bear on the
fractal tangle that is the web. A new geography of free connectivity with more intuitive
interfaces and new forms of democracy can be created with increased collaboration
and intercreativity.
Ultimately, advances are most regularly achieved through the connection of people's
half formed ideas, whether they are scientific, political or cultural.
Questions
When asked whether he regretted not establishing an intellectual copyright on the
ownership of the web, to prevent its misuse and sometime lack of democracy, he
responded by saying he had no regrets since there could be no compromise if people
wish to have a web which works as it should do.
One can't establish a system where you have one rule for one person and another
rule for others. If he had copyrighted it the whole web would not have taken off, at
least not in the same way it has. It certainly wouldn't have attracted the amount of
voluntary contributions it has done.
Berners–Lee was also asked whether web developers have aided the democratic
process. He felt that eBay was a good example of peer opinion on services and
individuals. His dream would be that politicians would say something and one of their
aids would create a wiki to allow people to have their say on that subject in response.
Sir Tim doesn't entertain a 'Terminator' view of a future world where machines have a
thinking power equal to that of humans. When asked about the future of machines he
replied that he foresaw chips gaining greater ability than neurons but didn't see it
extending to emergent behaviour.
More likely increasingly bizarre human behaviour will cause there to be a rise of cults
leading to the destruction of mankind from within ourselves. He did, however, feel
that web science does have a responsibility to monitor the way society interacts with
the web.
Finally, in response to a question about increased professionalism within the industry
leading to a greater degree of trust, he stated that 'people building systems have to
be aware of the laws of creation and of its consequences'. Perhaps this was a fitting
last word from someone who is the creator of an artefact which has changed
civilisation on a massive scale.
British Computer Society - The Web: Looking back, looking forward
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5. - Watch a video stream of the lecture
- BCS Lovelace Lecture and Medal
27 March 2007
British Computer Society - The Web: Looking back, looking forward
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