Defining Optimism for the web

By

First, some 1989 web history

It is possible to take a very short tour of the history of the web from CERN. It is an excellent micro-history and summary of key facts and dates:

The Web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world.

However, the narrative of the world wide web as something like hypertext had its origins in the scientific world before this.

A 1946 proto-web: Memex by Vannevar Bush

… envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals would compress and store all of their books, records, and communications, “mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility”.

  • Imagined a hypertext device, that would be like microfilm text able to be transmitted across distances
  • Would consume our traditional media into a digitized like format for rapid recall

Sounds about right?

In some ways Vannevar’s tech vision came to pass but not quite in the way that it was always intended, or is still continuing. We now keep our books and records and communications increasingly with a web aspect to them or at least involve a personal computer likely connected to the web.

Vannevarian optimism: 1968

Vannevar was motivated by the end of WW2 to see that it could be prevented again and technology used to less destructive ends. Another great figure in the world of hypertext brought forth a demonstration of what was to come by Douglas Engelbart with inspiration from Vannevar.

Prior to the demonstration, a significant portion of the computer science community thought Engelbart was “a crackpot”. When he was finished, he was described as “dealing lightning with both hands”.

Both seemed to think that an influx of computing power into information management could produce good and augment the human mind. Such optimism feels potentially difficult today.

Difficulty with optimism and the web of today

Continued forms of optimism remain under pressure. The web has its ups and downs, information and misinformation or disinformation. Against the backdrop of the 30 year anniversary of the web the creator acknowledged that the web which promoted immense knowledge transfer is also a host to scams and a digital divide.

Possibly the newest form of challenge to the idea of a beneficial web comes in the form of AI “Slop”. Before this and currently also Ad-ware, spyware, bloatware and many kinds of bad practices make it hard to be optimistic.

Defining Optimism for the web

I guess we can start looking from 1945 and consider Vannevar’s vision as somewhat fulfilled. We clearly have memex-like devices in our lives as the internet has become ubiquitous for billions. The features shown in the Mother of All Demo’s in 1968 have all largely come to pass as well. But where is the moral compass? That answer comes from the under 40 year old living memory of the webs origins.

By the end of 1990, Tim Berners-Lee had the first Web server and browser up and running at CERN, demonstrating his ideas. He developed the code for his Web server on a NeXT computer. To prevent it being accidentally switched off, the computer had a hand-written label in red ink: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!”

The World Wide Web however is more than just a knowledge management system: it has noble aspirations. It certainly holds the aspirations of its historical founder, Tim Berners-Lee, in its humble origins as a single machine but one for good.

It may have been a single machine but it was built on principles that formed the W3C:

Accessibility, internationalization, privacy and security as optimism.

The web’s founding vision that powers the W3C is a force for good amongst an information growth and expansion larger than Vannevar likely dreamed. We simply cannot expect to control all machines or all uses, but we can drive forward a vision that makes it work for the knowledge sharer’s and noble uses.

It may be the case that many many people will have a memex. Maybe 1946 was on track for 2025. But the Web was truly beginning later and has yet to fully arrive.

The human legacy of the web as a knowledge management tool remains vivid, and for this I remain optimistic, despite the many challenges it faces. In some ways Vannevar’s vision was always going to happen of the memex but the vision is much more in our hands today.

How I show my optimism

I regularly discuss, promote and comment on web standards and principles over passing issues of the day. I try to focus on what principles matter when I talk about tech, rather than just the tech.

  • Accessibility is timeless and relates to the human condition and to a degree, mortality that affects us all.
  • Internationalization builds stability and mutual knowledge exchange in a world that is sometimes at odds.
  • Privacy maintains many systems and values that are important to human freedom. Even in a world that opressess these often, work remains and is being done to advance it.
  • Security is also essential, and a difficult topic, but advanced through web standards.

In sum, I am optimistic about web standards as the answer to the challenges of the world wide web. Will it handle every challenge well? The future is currently unwritten.