Was there ever a time when we didn’t kickstart our day by automatically…

Was there ever a time when we didn’t kickstart our day by automatically picking up the mobile or placing a personal computer onto our lap to go online? A bygone age, when a forgotten number on that shared-home party line was looked up in a handheld bright yellow phone book, an obscure fact within a bulky Encyclopaedia Britannica volume, a map held up to the light for scrutiny rather than looked up via Google, and rather than opening an app, actually physically going out to buy a newspaper and yet another refill for your personal Filofax…

Globally-renowned computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in Scotland recently, must wonder as co-inventor of the World Wide Web. How his original aim, one based on preserving an open and global internet, sparking innovation to help humanity by collectively tackling a myriad of challenges, has somewhat gone awry. I happened to be present when he told an assembled international IT security experts’ gathering ‘the genie is out of the bottle’ when it comes to that aspiration.

Sir Tim is director of the Web3 Consortium overseeing the advanced development of the web and recently called for its ‘reopening… to empower’ users and help them gain back control over the internet. Since 2015, he has been working along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a new web infrastructure called Solid – or SOcial LInked Data – a decentralisation project to radically change the way web applications work. The aim is to achieve true data ownership by you and me along with radically improved privacy online.

But is such an envisaged internet reprogramming bid too little, much too late? A mighty global power-play is ongoing to wrestle control of key parts of the net. If successful, it is likely to significantly over-commercialise the net. This would probably lead to new charges imposed on users plus all but blow the virtual wheels clean off the internet. If they’re not off already. The trouble is we have all become well used to a free-and-easy internet, the price to pay as our personal information is collected, harvested and exploited for commercial ends.

We switch on, surf the net, browse social media, get the news headlines that were exactly the same as an hour or two ago – even though everything is labelled ‘Breaking News’ – check if anyone has texted or sent a video call invitation, also if that delayed package is at last on its way. Mind you, it is worth remembering that such smart tech communications have proved a godsend during this lingering near two-year pandemic. Alleviating very real dangers of feelings of isolation.

Drake Music Scotland and Tinderbox Collective have developed during the coronavirus ‘Distant Duets’ involving 10 musicians. Working together in pairs, they’ve created and recorded five stunning and innovative new pieces, accomplished despite the challenges of existing remotely. One participant, Erin, says of duetting online: ‘Sometimes I have felt lost as we can’t properly perform, but doing this You and I song has really helped me achieve what I want for the future and how I want my music career to expand’.

Listening to WWW’s Sir Tim always fills one with confidence. That, for example, the net’s ‘Dark Web’ is just a glitch. I’d like to think so. Trouble is, it’s estimated to be three times the size of the internet we use daily, a virtual underbelly frighteningly very real and full of nefarious, murky activity covering drugs and weapons and worse (if that’s possible). Then one non-profit global advocacy organisation, the Internet Society (ISOC), reports its online management system ‘MemberNova’ suffered a data security scare. Such a potential privacy breach would hit at the very heart of, well the internet. Third party forensics experts were brought in and, thankfully, it turned out to be a system malfunction. Nevertheless, some of the body’s 70,000 member details were leaked.Â

In 2019, ISOC became embroiled in a proposed sale of its Public Interest Registry to American Ethos Capital with proceeds from PIR’s sale going towards a new endowment fund. Such a move, transferring confidential information to a private equity investment firm, was understandably met with significant opposition. Ethos Capital was founded three years or so ago with the specific purpose of gaining control of the internet’s key domain name segment – .ORG – and to capitalise on such by developing a portfolio of data-monetisation start-ups. Short for organisation, it is principally used by non-profit bodies like charities. The unprecedented move swiftly prompted another non-profit global body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), established to preserve the operational stability of the net, to reject the proposal to sell PIR.

It all comes as Web3 is hardening up as the probable next iteration of the World Wide Web in an attempt at decentralisation. To remove the powerbase at present consisting of the ‘Big Tech’ but small grouping of companies. We all know them: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. They all but control all aspects of a sector. Together, they’re estimated to be worth currently over £6 trillion ($8T), according to an Information Technology Global Market Report. That’s one heck of a lot of high-powered institutions (not to mention acronyms) pulling-and-pushing at each other with the actual internet user’s needs tending to be overlooked.

Also, the group cannot commercially afford to ignore high-tech developments coming fast over the horizon. Including the so-called proposed ‘metaverse’ virtual reality playground, attempts to regulate burgeoning but wildly fluctuating cryptocurrencies, plus space adventures for an elite few. All light years away from the impact the internet can have on the individual. Especially in current uncertain times caused by the latest coronavirus variant Omicron. Yes, the internet has indeed provided much needed communications for individuals with others similarly stranded in their own homes.

But there is a downside. Being online for far too long can be bad for us. The Scottish Government plans to allow a ‘right to disconnect’ as evidence grows how ‘always on’ leads to less getting done, where we’re prone to waste time and become distracted and bring less focus and energy to stuff needing done. The answer is scheduling pockets of time, disconnecting from the internet to dive deeper into other (at times more important?) aspects of our lives.

A newly-launched website, Heads Up, reports that many people are finding that social media and being online can be very beneficial for their well-being. But it’s important to avoid pitfalls by finding positive ways to use such technologies safely. The site promotes and nurtures good mental health across Glasgow and Clyde, and points to colleagues at Outside the Box Development Services who are developing guidance on getting the best out of the internet. The net is recognised as making things simpler and for folks with mental health problems, a range of services have been developed including online community forums and places for advice and support.

However, a reality is that people with poor mental health are less likely than the general population to use the internet and digital ways of communicating to ensure they stay connected in their homes. Outside the Box spoke to folks about the barriers preventing them from getting online and the benefits of gaining access to digital technology. The result is invaluable hints and tips about digital inclusion and mental health. Not falling into that wee trap of solely supplying website details after what’s just been written above, Outside the Box can be contacted on 0141 337 8199.

As for that bygone age of shared telephone lines, encyclopaedias and Filofaxes? The origins of the World Wide Web can be sourced back to circa 1989, although earlier forms of systems of interconnected computer networks, in what eventually become known as the internet, were around in the 1960s in academic and military circles. The linking up of commercial (inter) networks and enterprises occurred by the early 1990s and absorbed into virtually every aspect of modern life. Hence the likes of the internet Society celebrating its 30th birthday this year.

The rest is digital history. World Wide Web Sir Tim’s worthy aspirations may have a global resonance. Of course they do, but they must come with an entreaty, one of never overlooking or take for granted how the sheer overwhelming impact of the Internet can, at times, prove damaging to an individual’s emotional, mental and physical well-being. It shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Former Reuters, Sunday Times, The Scotsman and Glasgow Herald business and finance correspondent, Bill Magee is a columnist writing tech-based articles for Daily Business, Institute of Directors, Edinburgh Chamber and occasionally The Times’ ‘Thunderer’

By Bill Magee | 12 January 2022