Break out the bubbly, it s the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web becoming public.
The web has, of course, been a life-changing invention — for better or for worse — for many of us.
Here s a snapshot of how the for better or worse part plays itself out, as told through recent developments:
- It s not Mr. Rogers neighborhood: Nextdoor, the San Francisco startup that runs a popular social networking site for neighborhoods, has been testing algorithms that check for racially charged terms in user posts. That s because the site has become a place for racial profiling, something that it s seeking to change after complaints from Oakland residents. The company is preparing to roll out the changes — the algorithms plus requiring users to fill out forms that provide more information when they report a crime or suspicious activity — to its entire U.S. network soon. Do I believe that a series of forms can stop people from being racist? Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia told NPR. Of course I don t.
- Many businesses and organizations use social media for outreach, but sometimes it works against them, especially when tragedy hits. The Cincinnati Zoo looks to have deleted its Twitter account after having to deal with too many memes about the death of Harambe, the gorilla the zoo decided to kill in May after a 3-year-old boy fell into the animal s enclosure. The account of the zoo s director, Thayne Maynard, also was hacked over the weekend, then proceeded to tweet support for the dead gorilla. Maynard told the Associated Press: We are not amused by the memes, petitions and signs about Harambe. Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us.
- Then there s WikiLeaks, the controversial website that has published secret government and other documents that have, in some cases, exposed corruption. But the Associated Press says it has found that the site s leaks have harmed innocent people, including survivors of sexual abuse, sick kids and the mentally ill. That s because WikiLeaks routinely publishes identity records, phone numbers and other information easily exploited by criminals, according to the AP. The recent leak of Democratic National Committee files falls into this category; it led to the harassment of some lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
We could go on and on about how the good often comes with the bad when it comes to the web, but you get the picture.
And in case you re thinking that you ve already celebrated the 25th anniversary of the web, you might have — two years ago. Computer scientist Tim-Berners Lee proposed the idea of the World Wide Web in 1989, so some people partied in 2014 to mark the 25th anniversary of that occasion. Today the fuss is about Internaut Day, which marks when the web became accessible to the public. For more on the history of the web (yes, it s been so long that some style gods have lowercased the word), see the World Wide Web Foundation s site, whose home page addresses the confusion about today.
Photo: Tim Berners-Lee in 1999. (Gary Reyes/Mercury News)
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