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A Magna Carta for the web

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    TED is 30.
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    The world wide web is celebrating this month
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    its 25th anniversary.
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    So I've got a question for you.
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    Let's talk about the journey, mainly about the future.
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    Let's talk about the state.
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    Let's talk about what sort of a web we want.
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    So 25 years ago, then, I was working at CERN.
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    I got permission in the end after about a year
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    to basically do it as a side project.
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    I wrote the code.
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    I was I suppose the first user.
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    There was a lot of concern
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    that people didn't want to pick it up
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    because it would be too complicated.
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    A lot of persuasion, a lot of wonderful
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    collaboration with other people,
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    and bit by bit, it worked.
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    It took off. It was pretty cool.
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    And in fact, a few years later in 2000,
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    five percent of the world population
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    were using the world wide web.
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    In 2007, seven years later, 17 percent.
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    In 2008, we formed the World Wide Web Foundation
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    partly to look at that
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    and worry about that figure.
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    And now here we are in 2014,
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    and 40 percent of the world
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    are using the world wide web, and counting.
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    Obviously it's increasing.
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    I want you to think about both sides of that.
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    Okay, obviously to anybody here at TED,
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    the first question you ask is, what can we do
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    to get the other 60 percent on board
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    as quickly as possible?
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    Lots of important things. Obviously
    it's going to be around mobile.
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    But also, I want you to think about the 40 percent,
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    because if you're sitting there yourself
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    sort of with a web-enabled life,
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    you don't remember things anymore,
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    you just look them up,
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    then you may feel that it's been a success
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    and we can all sit back.
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    But in fact, yeah, it's been a success,
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    there's lots of things, Khan Academy
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    for crying out loud, there's Wikipedia,
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    there's a huge number of free e-books
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    that you can read online,
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    lots of wonderful things for education,
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    things in many areas.
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    Online commerce has in some cases
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    completely turned upside down the
    way commerce works altogether,
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    made types of commerce available
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    which weren't available at all before.
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    Commerce has been almost universally affected.
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    Government, not universally affected,
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    but very affected, and on a good day,
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    lots of open data, lots of e-government,
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    so lots of things which are visible
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    happening on the web.
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    Also, lots of things which are less visible.
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    The healthcare, late at night when they're worried
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    about what sort of cancer
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    somebody they care about might have,
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    when they just talk across the Internet to somebody
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    who they care about very much in another country.
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    Those sorts of things are not, they're not out there,
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    and in fact they've acquired
    a certain amount of privacy.
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    So we cannot assume that part of the web,
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    part of the deal with the web,
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    is when I use the web,
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    it's just a transparent, neutral medium.
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    I can talk to you over it without worrying
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    about what we in fact now know is happening,
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    without worrying about the fact
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    that not only will surveillance be happening
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    but it'll be done by people who may abuse the data.
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    So in fact, something we realized,
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    we can't just use the web,
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    we have to worry about
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    what the underlying infrastructure of the whole thing,
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    is it in fact of a quality that we need?
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    We revel in the fact that we
    have this wonderful free speech.
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    We can tweet, and oh, lots and lots of people
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    can see our tweets, except when they can't,
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    except when actually Twitter
    is blocked from their country,
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    or in some way the way we try to express ourselves
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    has put some information
    about the state of ourselves,
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    the state of the country we live in,
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    which isn't available to anybody else.
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    So we must protest and make sure
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    that censorship is cut down,
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    that the web is opened up
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    where there is censorship.
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    We love the fact that the web is open.
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    It allows us to talk. Anybody can talk to anybody.
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    It doesn't matter who we are.
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    And then we join these big
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    social networking companies
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    which are in fact effectively built as silos,
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    so that it's much easier to talk to somebody
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    in the same social network
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    than it is to talk to somebody in a different one,
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    so in fact we're sometimes limiting ourselves.
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    And we also have, if you've read
    the book about the filter bubble,
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    the filter bubble phenomenon is that
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    we love to use machines
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    which help us find stuff we like.
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    So we love it when we're bathed in
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    what things we like to click on,
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    and so the machine automatically feeds us
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    the stuff that we like and we end up
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    with this rose-colored spectacles view of the world
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    called a filter bubble.
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    So here are some of the things which maybe
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    threaten the social web we have.
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    What sort of web do you want?
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    I want one which is not
    fragmented into lots of pieces,
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    as some countries have been suggesting
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    they should do in reaction to recent surveillance.
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    I want a web which has got, for example,
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    is a really good basis for democracy.
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    I want a web where I can use healthcare
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    with privacy and where there's a lot
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    of health data, clinical data is available
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    to scientists to do research.
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    I want a web where the other 60 percent
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    get on board as fast as possible.
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    I want a web which is such
    a powerful basis for innovation
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    that when something nasty happens,
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    some disaster strikes, that we can respond
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    by building stuff to respond to it very quickly.
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    So this is just some of the things that I want,
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    from a big list, obviously it's longer.
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    You have your list.
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    I want us to use this 25th anniversary
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    to think about what sort of a web we want.
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    You can go to webat25.org
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    and find some links.
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    There are lots of sites where people
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    have started to put together a Magna Carta,
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    a bill of rights for the web.
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    How about we do that?
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    How about we decide, these are, in a way,
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    becoming fundamental rights, the right
    to communicate with whom I want.
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    What would be on your list for that Magna Carta?
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    Let's crowdsource a Magna Carta
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    for the web.
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    Let's do that this year.
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    Let's use the energy from the 25th anniversary
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    to crowdsource a Magna Carta
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    to the web. (Applause)
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    Thank you. And do me a favor, will you?
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    Fight for it for me. Okay? Thanks.
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    (Applause)
Title:
A Magna Carta for the web
Speaker:
Tim Berners-Lee
Description:

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web 25 years ago. So it’s worth a listen when he warns us: There’s a battle ahead. Eroding net neutrality, filter bubbles and centralizating corporate control all threaten the web’s wide-open spaces. It’s up to users to fight for the right to access and openness. The question is, What kind of Internet do we want?
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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
06:47
Camille Martínez commented on English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for A Magna Carta for the web
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  • Camille Martínez

    Hi all--

    It sounds like the speaker says

    2:44 - 2:48
    and in fact _they require_
    a certain amount of privacy.

    rather than

    2:44 - 2:48
    and in fact _they've acquired_
    a certain amount of privacy.

    'They require' also makes more sense, given the point he's making.

    Do you agree? Disagree?

English subtitles

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