If your sink is blocked for a few weeks and you remove the plug to dig out the obstruction, the offending mangled mess of soap, fish bones, human hair and other horrible gunk in which bacteria has set up home, is exactly like the World Wide Web. That may sound odd but it's how Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Web-inventor and all round good guy, described it in a talk I went to last night at NESTA (which is btw a client). So that's good enough for me. He was emphasising the complexity of his creation which he says will see radical changes in the coming months and years - not least the growth of open data. To understand better the web's gooey tangled mess he has set up the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), a joint effort between Southampton University and MIT. TBL said Google's success in creating radically better search was the first serious attempt at web science and the WSRI will be applying similar methodologies. (Made me wonder if he thinks the Messrs Brin and Page needs some competition). Other highlights of the evening were his response to a comment that the semantic web was a 'top-down project'. "Who told you that!?", he asked in disbelief, in a moment of clarification that will surely live with the questioner for some time. In response to extending third-world web access, Sir Tim made the point that the current web is mainly text and therefore of little use to an illiterate farmer in Africa who needs to find out how to cure his sick cow. The answer is video which could, TBL noted, mean a major retooling of the cloud. The great man clearly isn't a fan of the latest release of top-level domain names which he likened to the creation of new real estate for 'boring' commercial reasons. In fact, he said, he'd like to be able to buy URIs for hundreds of years and give over their management to a massive, slow, international bureaucracy, thereby safeguarding their existence through inertia! And finally I thought his answer to the notion that too much is expected of the web resonated with everyone. "The web is merely a reflection of humanity. I think the danger is not that we expect too much of humanity, but that we expect too little."
[Update : Really, make sure you watch the video here.]
Totally agree with the end quote. Nice to be able to access your blog now that I'm out of China for a while too :)
Posted by: Charles Frith | July 09, 2008 at 04:23 PM
Thanks Charles. What's happening beyond the Great Firewall then? Anything of particular interest?
Posted by: James Cherkoff | July 09, 2008 at 05:03 PM
Hi James. Sad to have missed you yesterday - I caught that last quote too (and stuck it on the blog). That was my quote of the evening.
Posted by: neilperkin | July 09, 2008 at 07:57 PM
Hi Neil, yes sorry to miss you too. Yes, it was a lovely response and had special resonance coming from a man who has given the world so much. Impressively humble fellow I thought...
Posted by: James Cherkoff | July 09, 2008 at 08:10 PM
Just catching up on comments. I'm in the U.S. for a bit James. But China is fascinating. A country in transition for sure.
Posted by: Charles Frith | July 26, 2008 at 08:55 AM
Sounds amazing from your blog. Love to hear about it first hand when you get back.
Posted by: James Cherkoff | July 26, 2008 at 12:14 PM