By providing students and staff with a domain, I think we can start to address this. Students and staff can start to see how digital technologies work – those that underpin the Web and elsewhere. They can think about how these technologies shape the formation of their understanding of the world – how knowledge is formed and shared; how identity is formed and expressed. They can engage with that original purpose of the Web – sharing information and collaborating on knowledge-building endeavors – by doing meaningful work online, in the public, with other scholars. That they have a space of their own online, along with the support and the tools to think about what that can look like. Why ‘A Domain of One’s Own’ Matters (For the Future of Knowledge)
What I think this idea really captures is our need to make the connections between the various elements of the web, whether it be APIs or coding, rather than always accepting the packaged applications that provide the easiest option.
Introduction
For this written piece, I have selected three topics, some
of which I have discussed previously. I decided on these topics as they
appealed to me most in terms of being informative and generally interesting. I
will discuss my thoughts on the reading “A domain of One’s Own,” the
documentary clip on “The Virtual Revolution” and the reading “Hypertext and Our
Collective Destiny” in which Tim Berners-Lee discusses the web in 1995.
A Domain of One’s Own
Upon reading the piece on why “A domain of one’s own”
matters, I too was in a similar position to those who critique the message. I
didn’t truly understand the value of a website made by oneself, for oneself. As
I began to delve further into the piece, I realised how important a private,
personal space is. I now agree with the writer in that a “domain of one’s own”
is somewhere one can feel at home, having a website customized to their liking.
After creating my own site, I can agree that there is a feeling of safety involved
as well as a way of expression. There is great freedom with this but also a
sense of security which I believe to be a very important point. Images are
easily uploaded, and integrated social media is a common occurrence nowadays.
The idea of our personal data being “taken” (Berners
Lee 2018) and the fact it is out of our control has been addressed quite often.
I see eye to eye with the writer when she states this is something which should
concern us all. I’m sure many of us are informed about the situation involving
Cambridge Analytica and Facebook in which the data of millions was harvested.
According to Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison, Facebook “failed to
alert users and took only limited steps to recover and secure the private
information of more than 50 million individuals.” One could argue more people
are becoming aware of the severity of data breaches and how it can affect them,
but unfortunately, it is still a widespread issue to this day.
I also agree to an extent with the writer on the point
of security and how privacy can be controlled on a personal website. Things can
become password protected and you can “license things as you like” (Watters
2017.) However, it appears as if the writer almost encourages to put
information on a website even if slightly personal. She justifies this by
suggesting things can be “password protected” but this is not always a reliable
security feature. Websites are hacked on a regular basis and I am a firm believer
that one should not post very sensitive information on their site even if it is
“private.” One could argue that the newer generations are growing numb to data
breaches and posting personal information. It can be said that they do not care
as much as previous generations in this matter.
As long as it is used wisely, I do believe a domain of
one’s own is extremely useful opting as a place to “cultivate” ideas and used
as one’s own space as Watters discusses. A domain of one’s own could be
implemented in the education system more. One could argue it is unjust and
wrongful that the education system still revolves around pen and paper. Only at
third level is the idea of a personal website pushed upon us, encouraging us to
delve into the online world and personalize it, rather than running from it.
The Virtual Revolution
The video “The Virtual Revolution” was quite
intriguing to me. The main point that struck me was the fact the internet was
essentially created due to the American Defence setting up ARPANET. This was
quite captivating for me as no one seemed to foresee billions of users all
communicating and acquiring information through the internet in the near future.
To them, it was simply a defence system. It is quite difficult to comprehend
the fact this technology is now a major part of our lives and has altered the
way we communicate completely. It has had an immense impact on the world,
bringing us together in a lot of ways on a global scale. One could say that this
is ironic, that the American Defence managed to bring people together!
The journalist describes the importance of packet
switching and the overall security measures in place to keep the network active
and running. I agree with the fact these are extremely vital for how the
internet operates and functions as a whole. A key point in the video is when
Vint Cerf is interviewed and discusses how the internet has no “central control.”
I believe this to be an important point as it shows the complexity of the structure
of the internet. One cannot simply destroy the internet by targeting a specific
area. Instead there are multiple route servers which could still operate
communicating with themselves. Without these, the internet as we know it could
be at stake, vulnerable to attack, which is a worrying thought.
Cerf mentions here that the internet has no “central
control.” This is also a major point. The internet is not governed by any one
body. With this comes a sense of freedom, although it is not all plain sailing.
Political activists like Aaron Swarz, have fought constantly in a battle for open
access and freedom on the internet. Swarz personally wrote the “Guerrilla Open
Access Manifesto” and had a great impact on the internet as a whole, preventing
privacy laws and numerous other bills attempting to “control” the internet.
Another interesting point is when Vint Cerf states
there are “almost 2 billion people online.” This documentary series was
released in 2010 and in just 9 years the number of users has increased at an
exponential rate. According to Statista, “Almost 4.48 billion people were active internet users
as of October 2019.” This is a stunning figure showing the ever-increasing
power of the internet.
Overall,
I believe the documentary was enlightening in terms of understanding the vast
scale of the internet and its impact on our lives nowadays.
Hypertext and Our Collective Destiny – TBL
talking about the web in 1995
The reading “Hypertext and Our Collective Destiny” is
very informative and quite captivating to read. Tim Berners-Lee, one of the
great minds of this era, discusses his thoughts on information, hypertext and most
importantly, networking.
Personally, I found Berners-Lee’s thoughts on his
dream of the web being an “interactive sea of shared knowledge” quite
fascinating. His view that currently, we are using the web as a form of entertainment
like a “television channel” is also an interesting take. We currently have a
vast amount of information available to us at the touch of a finger, literally.
One could argue like Berners-Lee has himself, and say we are not utilising the
web to its full potential. After all, there is simply no better man to ask. Tim
Berners-Lee’s idea of the web is centred around structure and organisation as
he mentions “teams and organisations” multiple times. However, he doesn’t
believe this is how we are actually using the web, it is just “a dream” to him.
One could disagree with this point and say there are numerous examples of people
working together and showing organisation through the web through social media,
such as messaging applications like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp Messenger.
These could be used to coordinate work and organise it using the web.
When he states, “But pretty soon the web documents will start getting up and wandering
around,” this could mean a number of things. One could argue Berners-Lee is
referencing Artificial Intelligence here. It is interesting to note that the
fear of Artificial Intelligence is even more present today, with countless
people announcing their wariness towards future technologies. Even the
Billionaire, Elon Musk, has voiced his opinion on this. As the leader of
perhaps the most futuristic and forward-thinking companies, Tesla and SpaceX,
you would think Musk would be eager to delve into the world of AI, however, this is not the case.
He stated that I do think we need to be very careful about the advancement of
AI,” and that he believes it is the “biggest existential threat” to us.
Berners-Lee
poses a great question to us when concluding his talk, he refers to the use of
links but asks, “do we know what to do with them?” I found this incredibly thought
provoking. Are we still in the stone age? Are we still “Banging the rocks
together” as Berners-Lee says himself? This question also caused me to think
about the future of the web. As the World Wide Web is only 30 years old, one
can only imagine the potential of future extensions of it.
Bibliography
Berners-Lee: Talk at Bush
Symposium: Notes [WWW Document], n.d. URL
https://www.w3.org/Talks/9510_Bush/Talk.html
(accessed 12.10.19).
Cadwalladr, C., Graham-Harrison, E., n.d.
Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in
major data breach 5.
(68) The Virtual revolution Episode 2 Part
2.wmv – YouTube [WWW Document], n.d. URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4cvwif1AGQ&feature=youtu.be
(accessed 12.9.19).
Tim Berners Lee, Web Foundation (12th March 2018)
Watters, A. (2017). Why
‘A Domain of One’s Own’ Matters | Read Write Collect. [online] Read Write
Collect. Available at:
[Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].