In contrast to the innumerable articles critiquing the rise of technology “Long Live The Web” by Tim Berners-Lee encourages its development stating simply that the internet will continue to be a fascinating resource which allows individuals in the world to have access to a variety of opportunities such as staying connected with public information or to accomplish scientific breakthroughs. Berners-Lee remains unshakably firm on his idea that the ‘Fundamental Principles of the Web’ must be maintained in order for the technology, and all of its resources to continue to flourish alongside human civilization. He appraises the commercialisation of the internet as in doing so, the accessibility to data, information is lost. It becomes more difficult to share knowledge on one open platform, it instead belongs to one gated community. The internet has become increasingly commodified which violates many of the fundamental principles that Berners-Lee discusses. He emphasizes the loss of internet privacy as social media platforms retain their user’s personal information to use for advertising and the monopolisation of search engines and browsers. The increased commodification of the internet limits innovation, and the ability for the internet to become this powerful resource that can lead to scientific breakthroughs because the web slowly becomes a resource that isn’t free to use. You have to sacrifice personal information, or join a group, give up precious time to watch an ad in order to access these platforms.
Berner-Lee’s discussion of internet privacy pairs quite nicely with Ingrid Burrington’s discussion of Internet Soverignity in her article “The Strange Geopolitics of the International Cloud”. The conversation around internet sovereignty still continues and multiple conflicts over the localised access to data still continue. Many companies have situated their data centres outside of the countries that they are operating in due to the climate and economic factors, this, however, makes it difficult for companies to access data of foreign users if internet sovereignty is enforced. Internet sovereignty discusses in this article can be compared to the walled fences that Berner-Lee discusses in his articles claiming that they will become a backwards force on the full potential on the internet. He believes that “if a walled garden has too tight ahold on a market [it] can delay that outside growth”. Berner-Lee believes that with these restrictions on data and information, we are no longer able to make a combined worldwide effort into furthering research and improving services that will make the access to the web a more streamlined service.