The internet: Command and control
By Daniel Thomas, Richard Waters and James Fontanella-Khan
Future of digital world subject of intense debate to determine if it really will be for everyone
The man in the middle of the vast stadium pressed a button on a boxy old computer terminal, causing a message to flash across the darkness in front of a billion viewers scattered all over the world. This is for everyone, it said.
This was Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who helped create the World Wide Web and then surrendered control of it. The act, staged at the centre of the extravagant opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games, showed how his invention triggered a digital revolution as important as preceding scenes of industrial and social upheaval.
More than two decades after his breakthrough, the future of this digital world is the subject of intense debate to determine whether it really will be for everyone.
https://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fab58818-e63a-11e1-ac5f-00144feab49a.html#axzz24nmE0u19