The Web's Inventor Regrets One Small Thing

Governments around the world have put more of their data on the Web this year than previous years, and the United States and Britain have led the way, said Sir Tim Berners-Lee in an interview at a recent symposium on the future of technology in Washington, D.C. Berners-Lee, who is currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the World Wide Web Consortium, is enthusiastic about having traffic, local weather, public safety, health, and other data in raw form online. People will create exciting applications once the data and online tools are available, he said. For example, a simple mash-up that combines roadway maps with bicycle accident reports could help bikers determine the most dangerous roads. "Innovation is serendipity, so you don't know what people will make," he said. "But the openness, transparency, and new uses of the data will make government run better, and that will make business run better as well." With regard to any regrets about the Web, Berners-Lee said that using the double slash "//" after the "http:" in Web addresses turned out to be unnecessary.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/the-webs-inventor-regrets-one-small-thing/