Celebration and concern: the World Wide Web turns 30

It’s a milestone birthday for the World Wide Web.

Thirty years ago on March 12, 1989, a young physicist by the name of Tim Berners-Lee published a proposal for a new information management system, opening the way to a technological revolution that has transformed the way people buy goods, consume media, get information and much more.

Berners-Lee, who is now 63, came up with the idea for hypertext transfer protocol — the “http” that precedes web addresses — and other building blocks for the web.

The “http” system allowed text and small images to be retrieved from various computers through a piece of software — the first browser — which Berners-Lee released in 1990. In practice, the access to a browser on a home computer made the internet, which was developed in the 1960s, easily accessible to consumers for the first time.

Trolls, fake news and data breaches

Thirty years later, some 2 billion websites exist and it’s never been easier to connect with people and information online.

Gone are the days of dial-up internet and needing to use a home computer to go online. Some would argue “Netiquette” has disappeared too.

State-sponsored hacking, online harassment, hate speech and misinformation seem just as ubiquitous as viral videos and Google searches.

“We’re celebrating, but we’re also very concerned,” Berners-Lee said to reporters on Monday.

Berners-Lee said the web has created opportunity, made lives easier and given the marginalized a voice, but “it has also created opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred, and made all kinds of crime easier to commit.”

The anniversary offers “an opportunity to reflect on how far we have yet to go,” Berners-Lee said, calling the “fight” for the web “one of the most important causes of our time.”

Access in Canada

Late last year, a key threshold was crossed — roughly half the world is now online.

A person in Toronto could go through an entire day without ever disconnecting. Shopping malls, cafes and even TTC subway stations offer free wifi for customers. But in rural Canada, access to the internet has been far less abundant.

This year, the CRTC will issue a call for applications to its $750 million Broadband Fund. The fund will support projects to build or upgrade infrastructure to provide fixed and mobile wireless broadband internet service to under-served Canadians, helping to close the gap between rural and urban access.

The CRTC’s goal is for all Canadians to have access to internet speeds of 50 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload for fixed broadband services, an unlimited data option for fixed broadband services and the latest mobile wireless technology available to all homes, businesses and along major Canadian roads.

The regulator anticipates 90 per cent of Canadians will have that kind of access by 2021.