Tim Berners-Lee and 2001/2010 : Open and closed. / Jul 28th 2012

For some reason I can’t get one set of images from last night’s Olympic Opening Ceremony out of my head. It’s the moment where Tim Berners-Lee is revealed underneath the house, typing at a NeXT Cube and then the words THIS IS FOR EVERYONE emerge in lights in the crowd and on Twitter. I’d show you a video, but LOCOG are removing them all from YouTube. The irony of that is just too amazing. However here’s the Tweet.

In the middle of all of the symbolism of the Opening Ceremony about the industrial revolution and now the digital revolution and against the backdrop of the commercial aspects of the games, which have definitely been about constraint of intellectual property and restriction of choice, it felt like a defining and hopeful moment, albeit one we should cherish, treasure and defend. 

I also can’t seem to get this comparative set of images out of my head. The symmetry is almost too perfect. A black monolith as the machine of creation and a message to humanity; one full of openness and the other full of restriction.

Tim’s gesture of giving HTML/HTTP to the world is unparalleled in it’s wondrousness and generosity in modern times. That message in lights and on Twitter at the moment he is celebrated is such a powerful one. We must keep the web whole and for all. 

And thank you Tim. I’m personally so glad for what you did, and more so that what you did was recognised last night.

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