Long Live The Web

In the article Long Live The Web, the author analyzes the advantages and drawbacks of the Web and predicts the future of the Web.

The author mentions that the Web is efficient for people to handle information of all types and qualities regardless of what hardware, software, network connection or language they use. For me, in this post-pandemic era, I can always check the relevant regulations in case the pandemic causes more trouble in my life including making a backup plan if I’m locked in dorm and getting my nucleic acid done. The author also mentions that the web also has ill effects that governments can violate the network rights of their citizens. Especially these days, I sometimes can see that people could be prohibited to posting on the social media or their post could be hidden if they send messages that the government do not want to see or let the public know.

The author also discusses several complicated conceptions in his article. To understand these concepts, I compare them by their characteristics.

• • Universality is the foundation of the Web which means allowing people to put anything on the Web no matter whether they have disabilities while Isolation means that your site is on the Web, but your data is stored in a database which is isolated from the Web.
  • Open Standards means that individuals and companies can decide whether to pay for useful services to develop while Closed Worlds means that individuals and companies are required to pay for services and are trapped in a single world. When I use music app of Tencent, I have the same feeling that I can not share the link of my favorite song to others. These two conceptions are totally contrary.
  • The Web is an application which is a part of the Internet and the Internet is a network that transmits information between different computers. The Web relies on the Internet.

The author predicts the future of the Web at the end of his article. He argues that the Web promises some fantastic future capabilities in the future which include social development and finance linked with linked database and the rising of drawbacks of the linked data. Some of these predictions are proved to be true in recent years. One is that the investment and finance are able to benefit from linked data and the Fintech develops more advanced than the author’s imagination. The issues also arise. Privacy of users is challenged and is misused by corporations to make profits.