Founders: Internet Has Only Just Begun

April 23rd, 2009 By: Michael van der Galien | Tags: ,
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internets‘While the Internet has dramatically changed lives around the world, its full impact will only be realised when far more people and information go on-line, its founders said Wednesday,’ the AFP reports.

“The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past,” said Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the World Wide Web, at a seminar on its future.

Just 23 percent of the globe’s population currently uses the Internet, according to the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union, with use much higher in developed nations.

It is true. The far majority of men have never been on the Internet yet. They will in the coming years and decades, however. Those who think that the Internet – and therefore blogs, news and opinion websites, etc. – have reached their peak, are sorely mistaken. There is room for growth, and lots of it at that.

Robert Cailliau, who designed the Web with Berners-Lee in 1989, said having more data on the Internet, and more people with the ability to access it, will spur the development of new technology and solutions to global problems.

“When we have all data online it will be great for humanity. It is a prerequisite to solving many problems that humankind faces,” the Belgian software scientist said.

The Internet has already led to the development of businesses that could not have existed without it, boosted literacy and learning and brought people closer together through cheaper modes of communication, the Internet pioneers said.

The Internet has caused a revolution which continues to this day. More websites will be created in the coming years, and especially those that spend considerable time and attention to Africa and Asia will grow tremendously.

There has been some debate in the Netherlands about blogs and about whether or not there were ‘too much of them.’ The answer to that question is obviously ‘no.’ If you think there are many (influential) blogs in Europe and in the U.S. now, go offline and come back five years from now; you’ll be blown away.

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  1. Interested
    April 23rd, 2009 at 12:19
    Reply | Quote | #1

    I’ll believe it when I hear it from the real inventor of the Internet

    one Mr. Al Gore.

    Much more prominent is when IPv6 becomes the standard that all networks are set up with (that is if it’s not just effectively bypassed). I predict that influential blogs will become watered down and lose their influence as more volume of sites compete for attention – or rather compete for advertising dollars.

  2. Michael Merritt
    April 24th, 2009 at 05:30
    Reply | Quote | #2

    one Mr. Al Gore.

    I’ll take the visionary over the politician any day.

  3. Interested
    April 24th, 2009 at 05:44
    Reply | Quote | #3

    I wouldn’t

    That same visionary – the one who (like our President) has no problems burning major amounts of fossile fuels to promote conservation?

  4. Michael Merritt
    April 24th, 2009 at 06:30
    Reply | Quote | #4

    I was speaking of Tim Berners-Lee. Thought the politician being Al Gore would have been obvious in the context of your post.

    Should have been clearer. Sorry.

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