"We could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done democratically. To do that, we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal"
About this Quote
The key move is the shift from values to protocols. “Everything is done democratically” isn’t about online voting or civics-class ideals. It’s about who gets to publish, link, and be found without asking permission. When he says “get computers to talk with each other,” he’s naming the quiet power of interoperability: open standards, nonproprietary formats, and decentralized exchange. Democracy, in this framing, is what happens when no single gatekeeper controls the conversation or the pipes.
The subtext is also a warning. If the Web can be designed to “promote that ideal,” it can just as easily be engineered to undermine it: lock-in, surveillance, algorithmic opacity, walled gardens. Berners-Lee’s line lands harder in hindsight, after social platforms turned “talking” into engagement extraction and after states and corporations realized the Web is not a neutral commons but a contestable infrastructure.
Context matters: the Web emerged from a research environment allergic to hierarchy, built on the practical need to share documents across incompatible systems. His intent isn’t utopian fluff. It’s a designer’s argument that political outcomes follow technical choices, and that default openness is itself a form of governance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Berners-Lee, Tim. (2026, January 15). We could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done democratically. To do that, we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-could-say-we-want-the-web-to-reflect-a-vision-11503/
Chicago Style
Berners-Lee, Tim. "We could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done democratically. To do that, we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-could-say-we-want-the-web-to-reflect-a-vision-11503/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done democratically. To do that, we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-could-say-we-want-the-web-to-reflect-a-vision-11503/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.
