Facebook and Social networking: Tim Berners-Lee closes the stable door after the horse has bolted

“Since I started using computers and since I abandoned the
choppy waters of Windows for the safe harbour of FOSS, the internet
has experienced huge change and rapid growth. Better web browsers,
file sharing, iPhones, iPads and other touch screen tablets too.
The one thing that has not changed much though is that GNU/Linux
always seems to breast the tape second. It seems fated to forever
be behind the curve. I can live with that as long as I’m using my
software my way. Free and open. However, that has implications for
freedom and privacy that I don’t like living with—and neither
does Tim Berners-Lee. Specifically, he has been venting about those
very things in respect of social networks and how they threaten
that freedom and privacy.

“Verily, the oracle has spoken

“I am very fond of three contemporary icons: Richard Stallman,
Linus Torvalds. And Tim Berners-Lee. Unlike Bill Gates, Tim
Berners-Lee could walk down any high street and not be recognised
and yet every human being in the world owes him a huge debt of
gratitude.”

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