10 posts and columns on World Wide Web

Ancient Liberties of the Web

We all use the web now for all kinds of parts our lives, some trivial, some critical to our life as part of a social world. In the spirit going back to Magna Carta, we require a principle that: No person or organization shall be deprived of their ability to connect to others at will without due process of law, with the presumption of innocence until found guilty. Neither governments nor corporations should be allowed to use disconnection from the Internet as a way of arbitrarily furthering their own aims.

– World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, speaking out against COICA (Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act)

Bungie Says “Halo” to 20th Anniversary (Video)

in Commerce on August 7, 2011 at 10:30 am PT

The creator of Halo on the Xbox hits the two-decade mark and celebrates itself with an hour-long documentary.
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World Wide Web Almost Old Enough to Drink; Lucy Hits the Century Mark

in News on August 6, 2011 at 3:22 pm PT

The Web celebrates its 20th birthday, while Google marks what would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday with a very cool retro TV doodle.
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Pakistan Takes on Facebook, YouTube and the Internet

in Media on May 20, 2010 at 5:11 am PT

A good reminder that the definition of the “World Wide Web” can change, depending on the country you’re living in: The Pakistani government is trying to block some of the planet’s most popular Web sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia.

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Keep a Civil Cybertongue

in News on December 29, 2009 at 11:47 am PT

In less than 20 years, the World Wide Web has irrevocably expanded the number of ways we connect and communicate with others. This radical transformation has been almost universally praised. What hasn’t kept pace with the technical innovation is the recognition that people need to engage in civil dialogue. What we see regularly on social networking sites, blogs and other online forums is behavior that ranges from the carelessly rude to the intentionally abusive.

Voices

Web Alphabet Set to Change

in News on October 27, 2009 at 10:40 am PT

The World Wide Web is about to start using the languages of the world. Leaders of the private body that oversees the basic design of the Internet are expected to decide at a meeting here Friday to let Web addresses be expressed in characters other than those of the Roman alphabet. Already, portions of a Web address can be written in other languages. But the suffix, such as the “com” after the dot, must be typed in Roman letters.

Eolas Sues Internet

in News on October 6, 2009 at 11:29 am PT

Three years after squeezing a settlement out of Microsoft for alleged infringements of its controversial patent on embedded Web applications, Eolas Technologies hopes to do the same to a bunch of other big tech outfits. This morning, the research and development company filed suit against nearly two dozen companies, including Amazon, Apple, Adobe and Google.
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Web 3.0: The Salesforce.com Web

in News on May 8, 2008 at 12:00 am PT

If the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 are “groundbreaking” Facebook widgets, easy access to dumb capital and haughty start-ups dangerously over-leveraged on other companies’ assets what (or who) will define the Web 3.0 epoch? The answer’s obvious isn’t it? Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. Why? Because he says so, that’s why. Speaking at the company’s DreamForce [...]