Tim Berners-Lee at W3C WWW2010 conference in Raleigh
By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC – Increasingly, technologies are turning the Web browser into a computing platform and future Web apps “Are very much ripe for entrepreneurship,” said Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the WWW2010 conference in Raleigh.
Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, remains at the forefront of new developments affecting his sometimes unruly child.
At a press conference at the WWW2010 conference, Berners-Lee, Jeff Jaffe, new CEO of W3C, and Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity lead, discussed the potential future impact of ongoing and upcoming changes on the Web.
“Jaffe noted that the ‘Semantic Web,’ which links data in the Web using URIs and W3C standard technologies, will make it possible for the Web to ‘understand’ and satisfy requests of people and machines, thereby providing a better tool for describing the real world and presenting new knowledge, information and services.”
“That will make it easier for entrepreneurs to jump in and get started in some business,” he said.
Left to right: Tim Berners-Lee, Jeff Jaffe, CEO of W3C, and Ivan Herman at WWW2010 press conference panel in Raleigh
Herman added, “All these technologies open new potential for businesses, but he semantic Web obviously does. Things become possible that were not before. I wouldn’t make a guess as to what kinds of Web businesses will be around in two or three years, because I’d be wrong.”
A primary focus of W3C and the panelists was promoting Linked Open Data on the Web by global governments.
In answer to a question about adopting the Web for smaller screens, Berners-Lee pointed out it isn’t just smaller screens, but larger ones — in adapting it for screens of all sizes. “Going forward, we see all sorts of innovations,” he said.
Those include ways to not just shrink a Web page for say mobile devices, but also to use style sheets that allow users to do different things depending upon screen size.
Eventually, he said, we may just speak the name of a town to have a mobile device go off and find weather, shopping, and other information about the town.
“The Web has been around 20 years,” said Jaffe. “It’s about to be supercharged with new technologies that are going to create enormous opportunities for industry to jump in and participate.”
