This Is for Everyone

A lovely book that part personal history and part technological history of the World Wide Web by the person who created it and made it available for everyone. It also looks at the present, with issues related to personal data and AI technology, and ends with an optimistic note about the future of the Web.

The story starts with his childhood, playing with electronics. From there, it naturally leads him to an education in physics and electronics, and working in the computer business. The story starts to get interesting once he gets employed by CERN, working on data processing. What he discovers is that CERN, being a multinational organisation, employs numerous different computer systems, documentation systems and data storage systems. If you want to look up some data or find an expert in a system, the best way was to go to a coffee table, where people gather, and ask around: somebody would usually know who to ask.

What he wanted was a way to link together the information in a free-form way: Hypercard would turn out to be an inspiration. But while Hypercard only links together information on one computer, he envisages a system that would link together information over a network of computers. He puts out a proposal and, with the backing of his managers, get a computer (a NeXT computer for development) and creates the system that he would call the World Wide Web.

As usage of the World Wide Web grows, he works to make sure it is available to everyone. He gets an agreement from CERN to release it with no restrictions. As the internet is opened up for commercial use, he works hard to make sure corporations and non-profits who have an interest in the World Wide Web, sit at the same table and make a common standard. This was, of course, the period of the Web Wars, when companies like Netscape and Microsoft were competing by trying to introduce incompatible Web standards. His work would ensure that web browsers would (mostly) understand a common Web language and work with each other.

Moving closer to the present, he begins to see new challenges, with the storage and sale of personal data by companies being a cause of concern. His answer is a Pod or Digital Wallet that would hold a users data and release it to companies and other only with the permission of users. Some countries are now implementing such Wallets, and it remains to be seen if this will help protect the privacy of users.

Social media is a cause of concern for him. He finds that social media companies implement algorithms to keep people engaged with the companies, and that usually means showing users the most provocative content. He is hopeful the rise of social networks based on distributed servers (like Mastodon) that cater to users interests, rather than companies interests, would help to keep conversations and discussions more civil. The current rise of AI systems is also addressed in the book, but this is still an ongoing concern for him. He remains optimistic that a way might be found for AI Agents to work for us, using data from the Wallets, rather than working for corporations.

An engaging book on a person who was there at the start by creating the World Wide Web, and whose current interests is to ensure that the Web remains for everyone.