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Tim Berners-Lee Enters Blogosphere

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the has-nice-things-to-say-about-it dept.

Saiyine writes "Sir Timothy 'Tim' John Berners-Lee has entered the world of blogging. From his first post: 'In 1989 one of the main objectives of the WWW was to be a space for sharing information. It seemed evident that it should be a space in which anyone could be creative, to which anyone could contribute. The first browser was actually a browser/editor, which allowed one to edit any page, and save it back to the web if one had access rights ... Now in 2005, we have blogs and wikis, and the fact that they are so popular makes me feel I wasn't crazy to think people needed a creative space.'"

10 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah, But.... by CWRUisTakingMyMoney · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did Tim have the whole world in mind back in 1989, or was he just trying to create a network for scientists and researchers such as himself? Surely, he couldn't have overlooked the ease of vandalism on the system he envisioned, but a community of scientists is much less likely to vandalize each other's work than the population at large. Wikis are very popular, but so is their vandalism. Heck, Slashdot just did a story about that today with Wikipedia.

    --
    Those who anthropomorphize science and/or nature already believe in an intelligent designer.
  2. Thus MySpace? by Eberlin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At a public library computer lab, the most common use of the machines is people gawking at other people's pictures on myspace. At any given time, this is about 70 percent of the usage.

    Though I'm definitely thankful for this wonderful thing that Sir Tim envisioned, there's a part of me that suffers a bit. For every tool created, there are good uses and bad uses, and yeah I know I'm probably not fit to decide which category myspace belongs in...but I bet that what we most commonly use the web for nowadays is not what even Sir Tim had in mind.

    1. Re:Thus MySpace? by Eberlin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The point is that for every innovation presented to the masses, there is a commercialization, and inevitably, a complete bastardization of the original concept. Even you point this out.

      It is more a statement against human nature than it is about the vision of one man.

    2. Re:Thus MySpace? by osu-neko · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, the most telling statement about human nature here is how, when someone uses a new tool in a way someone else doesn't like, it's called "bastardization". That it happens isn't a statement against human nature, but that it's viewed that way by some certainly is...

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    3. Re:Thus MySpace? by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >but I bet that what we most commonly use the web for nowadays is not what even Sir Tim had in mind.

      So? Linus probably never thought he'd be writing code for missile trajectory systems. Edison would be completely and utterly confused by 21st century life, culture, and technology.

      As far as myspace goes, to each his own. At the very least it has a positive social function in the exchange of ideas and networking, albeit for a certain demographic. Just because you aren't a teen anymore doesn't mean that suddenly all teens suck or that things were 'better' before.

      If people are concerned about control, legacy, content filtering, etc then they should stay out of the open game. Go proprietary like Compuserv, Prodigy, and to a lesser extent AOL. Technology which decentralizes information like the internet or the printing press leads to many things. Hearing people complain about ordinary blogs, LJ, myspace, etc must have been just like hearing the Catholic church complain about how people are learning to read their own bibles or are publishing criticism of government and the church. Some things never change it seems.

  3. Re:Editing pages? by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why are they hacks? GET is for retrieving a resource from the server, PUT is for putting a resource on the server, and POST is for sending information to a resource on the server. In what way are they not "proper"?

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  4. This story is technically incorrect by pHatidic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The first ever webpage, Tim's homepage, was a blog.

  5. Re:Editing pages? by heinousjay · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More properly, there are some horrible hacks out there who misuse HTTP. In particular, anyone who uses the GET method to change server state should have a finger removed.

    Browsers, on the other hand, have implemented some horrible hacks in lieu of properly implementing the protocol. That's more along the lines of your complaint.

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  6. Re:A plague! by Cl1mh4224rd · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Woe onto the editor who posts a story with the word "blogosphere" in the headline.
    I've never been fond of the word "blog" myself. It sounds to me like something you do when you have a stomach flu...
    --
    People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.
  7. Blogosphere by tero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anyone using the word "Blogosphere" should be executed publicly.