Thirty years ago, Tim Berners Lee coded up the foundational technologies for the World Wide Web (Web) while at CERN, he wrote “Information Management: A Proposal” outlining the Web concept. And it’s been quite an evolution for something that started as an idea for a way for scientists at CERN to share the information, and it went towards as a relevant tool for changing the world in socio-technological ways.
A quick timeline of the Web’s history and my professional contributions to the Web:
- In the year 1999, I founded the first biggest electronic newsletter in Balkans with over 800 subscribers, and a year later, an electronic online magazine on architecture, culture, and design
- In 2002, I was interning in D.C. at the Library of Congress at Slavic and central European division on the international web portals presentation
- In 2009/10, I worked with this genius, Dan Brickley, at the FAO of the United Nations, on metadata standards, APs, FOAFs, etc.
- From 2010 and on, my contribution both to Web and the Internet is focusing on the following: internet access infrastructures, digital divides and digital inclusion, reframing of the digital literacy skills, internet governance and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), ICT4D. With my colleagues and partners at the Basic Internet Foundation, we are working on the Internet lite standard and helping under-connected areas on the globe (that 50% without the internet access) get inclusive into the digital world, and get the proper and effective access to education and health information. More about the Foundation, read here.
Web today is facing multiple challenges: starting from the digital divide to the threats to the privacy, security and fundamental rights. What it will happen in the next 30 years with Web? We can all contribute to it even on the micro-level with the principles of innovation, openness, neutrality, and interoperability.
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