This month, the World Wide Web turned 20 years old. Unlike my children who are unable to imagine life without email, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube and the myriad other uses they make of the Web, I do remember the way things were before the Web (remember those big heavy books called “encyclopaedias” and some other heavy things called “Yellow Pages”?). Now that I’ve been reminded of the Web’s birthday I’m not sure whether I’m more astounded at how quickly 20 years has passed or actually what a very short period of time the Web has existed, given its profound impact on our lives and on the world (and of course you could arguably say something similar about mobile phones).
Have a look at TED for a great talk given recently by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee. He says he originally created the Web as a “play project” on the side and goes on to talk about his next project which is to build a Web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures and video to “unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together”. It makes absolute sense when you think about it – after all the Web is the ultimate cloud computer.
I love TED, it’s one of the best sources of thought-provoking, stimulating, fascinating material on the web. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). I find a good way to keep up with what’s new on TED is to follow it on Twitter.