In this week’s reading, we read “Long Live the Web” by Berners-Lee and “A Network of Fragments” by Ingrid Burrington. What’s intrigues me in Berners-Lee’s reading is how he presents us with the way that web collects our information. I have always know that privacy is of a big concern when we are using webs. But never have I ever thought that it could be this worse. It can capture your information by identifying the image you post and analyzing the likes you give. And without your awareness, it can collect your private information, from the most basic: your email address, your birthdays to your friends circle and the things you like. Just imagine how this could be taken advantages of by the bad guys. While the web is becoming more and more intelligent, our privacy is becoming more and more transparent. Berners mentions the universality of the web, but what concerns me also is how the universality can be used in the wrong way. He empathizes the importance of keeping this universality, which he thinks is also what keeps the web prosperous. I do agree with the idea that universality is what booms the web, but that’s also what makes the web dangerous. I do think that we need to regulate the web in some kind of way, but at the same time I really cannot figure out a proper way to regulate without affecting its universality.
The other point that I found very interesting is how Berners separate the web and the Internet. And how Berners take the linked data as the prospect of the web and the Internet. And that resonates with the idea that the Internet is everywhere with Ingrid Burrington. Burrington describes the material physicality and geographic sites of the Internet. To elaborate on that, he concludes that the Internet is everywhere. I used to think of the Internet as the web. But after reading this, I gained a more comprehensive understanding of the Internet and the web. The web is built on the Internet. And the web is an upper layer of the Internet. Thus linked data could produce so many profits and benefits than we could ever imagine in the future.