“Long Live the Web”
The Web in its current form, will not be the current form in the future. Like an organism, it is constantly growing, from a variety of sources and regions. In his entry to Scientific America, Tim Berners-Lee outlines the principle foundations of the world wide web, namely: Universality, privacy (no snooping), data accessibility, net neutrality etc. These are all principles and foundations that make the Web navigatable by the average user. In the time elapsed since this article was written, wearable technology is becoming more available, Google, Facebook, and other websites were blocked in China by the Great Firewall, net neutrality in the US was threatened etc. In advances, there are also setbacks. While reading through this article, I can’t help but be a cynic to the idea of being afforded complete and utter freedom on the web, while there exists so much promise for innovation on the web, there also exists great threat. Cyberwarfare, Copyright infringement (which Berners-Lee mentions), the things that occur on the dark-web, these are all possible cons to the immense benefits of the internet, and they needn’t be ignored. In having discussions about what can and cannot be done, we navigate what is socially and even ethically acceptable in the new virtual world created by the web. This cannot be a discussion conducted by ISPs, or governments. Like Berners-Lee points out, we must speak up, and contribute to discussions like this. We must protest when something unfair occurs and be responsible users of the web. The virtual/digital world is quickly becoming increasingly relevant in our everyday lives, it is our duty to make sure it is used correctly.
“The Strange Geopolitics of the International Cloud”
In contrast with the optimistic principles outlined by Berners-Lee in “Long Live the Web”, this article talks about the real world implications of factors that affect the consumption of the Web in different parts of the world. Cold weather, tax rules, data sovereignty laws are all factors that affect the way the web is consumed and what pages/data/info people can visit in various countries. They affect the placement of servers and thus influence the way we consume data (latency is affected by proximity to servers). This is extremely apparent in the daily lives of NYU Shanghai students, considering the fact that we need to use VPNs to access blocked websites in China. Multiple factors that affect how we consume the web are out of our control. Global efforts, on the institutional and individual level, will help navigate how it is used in the future.