In a rare interview Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) speaks to the British Computer Society (BCS) and reveals a three point vision for the development of the Web.
Specifically, Sir Tim identifies the biggest issues facing the Web in the near future as; security, the Mobile Web with the seamless availability of information on any device, and Web services. He also speaks about the need for the Web and society as a whole to address the complex issue of intellectual property and the question of private ownership versus public accessibility.
Sir Tim spoke to the BCS for its publication IT Now to support the forthcoming special conference devoted to the World Wide Web (WWW2006) at which he will be a key speaker.
The conference, which promises to be one of the hottest tickets this year, organised by the University of Southampton in association with the BCS will bring together key players from the international Web community at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, 23rd-26th May 2006.
Speaking about what he hopes the conference will achieve, Sir Tim says: “In a lot of ways Web development is at a multi-way crossroads. There are a huge number of developments that are potentially world changing and there’s a lot of excitement. The conference will bring everyone together and get a handle on which are important and where we should be focusing our energy in the next five years.”
The conference programme will include feature papers on world leading technical innovations in many areas, including, Mobile Web, Semantic Web and the challenges of security and privacy. Speakers will explore the implications and applications of Web technology across society, including government, business and education, with workshops covering topics such as Internet Crime, Accessibility and Data Collection.
In his interview, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who has been awarded the BCS Lovelace medal for 2006 in support of his outstanding contribution to IT, offers his thoughts on the subject of IT professionalism. “It makes sense to talk about being professional in IT. This may be a biased point of view, but standards are vital so that IT professionals can provide systems that last. IT professionals have a responsibility to understand the use of standards and the importance of making Web applications that work with any kind of device. They need to take the view that data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.”
As part of the same discussion, Sir Tim also raises the issue of accessibility; “Everyone should be accommodated, especially when around 20 per cent of the population have special requirements. In fact, Microsoft said recently that nearly 50 per cent of people need to make some sort of adjustment to their system to interact with it.”
Delegates at WWW2006 will be able to hear Sir Tim Berners-Lee speaking on Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th when he introduces the day’s programme. Tickets for the conference are already in great demand with over 2,000 delegates from across the world expected to attend, including; Chief Information Officers, IT directors and decision makers, researchers, technologists and developers.
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Website: www.bcs.org
The British Computer Society (BCS) is the industry body for IT professionals and a Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Technology.
The BCS is responsible for setting standards for the IT profession. It is also leading the change in public perception and appreciation of the economic and social importance of professionally managed IT projects and programmes. In this capacity, the Society advises, informs and persuades industry and government on successful IT implementation.
