In his book A brief history of the future: the origins of the Internet, John Naughton comments:1 The Internet is one of the most remarkable things human beings have ever made.
In terms of its impact on society, it ranks with print, the railways, the telegraph, the automobile, electric power and television. Some would equate it with print and television, the two earlier technologies which most transformed the communications environment in which people live.
Yet it is potentially more powerful than because it harnesses the intellectual leverage which print gave to mankind without being hobbled by the one-to-many nature of broadcast television.
In Weaving the Web, the World Wide Web’s inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, quotes a speech made by the South African president, Thabo Mbeki:2 on how people should seize the new technology to empower themselves; to keep themselves informed about the truth of their own economic, political and cultural circumstances; and to give themselves a voice that all the world could hear. And he adds: ‘I could not have written a better mission statement for the World Wide Web.’ Later he comments:
The Web is more a social creation than a technical one.
And again:
the dream of people-to-people communication through shared
knowledge must be possible for groups of all sizes, interacting
electronically with as much ease as they do now in person.
