World Wide Web's Inventor and Web Foundation's Founding Director Tim Berners-Lee. Photo: Pedro Fiúza/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sir Tim Berners-Lee of Boston, the British computer scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web, writes 30 years after his proposal on March 12, 1989, for "linked information systems" that include hypertext:
"The web has become a public square, a library, a doctor’s office, a shop, a school, a design studio, an office, a cinema, a bank, and so much more. Of course with every new feature, every new website, the divide between those who are online and those who are not increases."
- "And while the web has created opportunity, given marginalized groups a voice, and made our daily lives easier, it has also created opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred, and made all kinds of crime easier."
- "But given how much the web has changed in the past 30 years, it would be defeatist and unimaginative to assume that the web as we know it can’t be changed for the better in the next 30."