"IT professionals have a responsibility to understand the use of standards and the importance of making Web applications that work with any kind of device"
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Berners-Lee is doing something sly here: he frames interoperability not as a nice-to-have feature, but as a professional duty. That word, "responsibility", is a moral lever disguised as an engineering guideline. It drags the conversation out of the usual product-cycle chatter and into ethics: if you build for the web, you owe the public a web that actually behaves like the web.
The insistence on "standards" is the tell. Standards are rarely glamorous; they are the tedious agreements that keep powerful actors from turning open ecosystems into gated resorts. In the 1990s and 2000s, the browser wars and proprietary plugins made "the web" feel contingent, brittle, and corporate. Berners-Lee, long associated with the W3C and the web's founding ideals, is implicitly warning that without standards, the platform he helped invent becomes a patchwork of private fiefdoms. The subtext is anti-capture: no single company should get to decide what "works" online.
Then he widens the ethical frame with "any kind of device". This isn't just about responsive design; it's about access. Devices map onto income, geography, disability, bandwidth, and infrastructure. A web app that only runs smoothly on the latest phone isn't merely poorly engineered; it's socially selective. By tying standards to device diversity, Berners-Lee argues that compatibility is a proxy for fairness.
The intent, ultimately, is to reassert the web's original bargain: publish once, reach everyone. In an era where "move fast" can mean "break universality", he's reminding IT professionals that the real innovation is keeping the commons usable.
The insistence on "standards" is the tell. Standards are rarely glamorous; they are the tedious agreements that keep powerful actors from turning open ecosystems into gated resorts. In the 1990s and 2000s, the browser wars and proprietary plugins made "the web" feel contingent, brittle, and corporate. Berners-Lee, long associated with the W3C and the web's founding ideals, is implicitly warning that without standards, the platform he helped invent becomes a patchwork of private fiefdoms. The subtext is anti-capture: no single company should get to decide what "works" online.
Then he widens the ethical frame with "any kind of device". This isn't just about responsive design; it's about access. Devices map onto income, geography, disability, bandwidth, and infrastructure. A web app that only runs smoothly on the latest phone isn't merely poorly engineered; it's socially selective. By tying standards to device diversity, Berners-Lee argues that compatibility is a proxy for fairness.
The intent, ultimately, is to reassert the web's original bargain: publish once, reach everyone. In an era where "move fast" can mean "break universality", he's reminding IT professionals that the real innovation is keeping the commons usable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
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