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TECHNOLOGY Wednesday 5 april 2017

Inventor of World Wide Web

wins computing’s ‘Nobel Prize’

MICHAEL LIEDTKE retrieved through brows- If the Trump administra-
AP Technology Writer er software capable of tion tries to dump net
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) rendering graphics and neutrality, “it’s going to
— Most people who other images. In Au- have a fight on its hands
search on Google, share gust 1991, he launched because I think the
on Facebook and shop the world’s first website, American people real-
on Amazon have never http://info.cern.ch . ize it’s important,” Bern-
heard of Sir Tim Berners- Besides coming up with ers-Lee said. “It allowed
Lee. But they might not the web’s technical America to benefit from
be doing any of those specifications, Berners- a thriving internet mar-
things had he not in- Lee “offered a coher- ket for connectivity and
vented the World Wide ent vision of how each content. It has become
Web.Berners-Lee, 61, is of these elements would part of the spirit of Amer-
this year’s recipient of work together as part of ica.”
the A.M. Turing Award, an integrated whole,” Berners-Lee also wor-
computing’s version of said Vicki Hanson, presi- ries about governments
the Nobel Prize. dent of the Association around the world using
The award, announced for Computing Machin- the internet as a surveil-
Tuesday by the Asso- ery. lance tool, calling it a
ciation for Computing In an even more signifi- “recurrent threat.” He
Machinery, marks an- cant move, Berners-Lee admits that preserv-
other pinnacle for the decided against pat- ing personal privacy as
British native, who has enting his technology technology advances
already been knighted and instead offered it remains a thorny prob- In this Monday, April 3, 2017, photo, Tim Berners-Lee poses out-
by Queen Elizabeth II as royalty-free software. lem, one that he doesn’t side his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Cambridge, Mass.
and named as one of That allowed other pro- have a ready solution Associated Press
the 100 most important grammers to build upon for. But figuring that out
people of the 20th Cen- the foundation he’d is “really important to if humanity will be better think about those conse-
tury by Time magazine. laid, spawning more the future of society,” he or worse off as comput- quences.”
“It’s a crowning achieve- than a billion websites says.“As an individual, I ers grow better at think- This is the 50th anniver-
ment,” Berners-Lee said today that have helped should be able to keep ing like people via artifi- sary of the A.M. Turing
in an interview with The lure more than 3 billion my own notes, keep cial intelligence. award, named after
Associated Press. “But I people online. my own journal and not “Computing has grown English computer scien-
think the award is for the CAUGHT IN THE WEB share it with anybody. exponentially more pow- tist Alan Turing, whose
Web as a project, and The web’s widespread That is just part of being erful, so It’s only logical revolutionary work with
the massive internation- appeal gratifies Berners- a person.” that it will get to the point early computers and arti-
al collaborative spirit of Lee, who now splits his BEYOND THE WEB when computers will be- ficial intelligence helped
all that have joined me time shuttling between Like several other promi- come smarter than us,” crack Nazi Germany’s
to help.” the U.S. and Britain as nent figures in technolo- Berners-Lee said. “So, codes during World War
The honor comes with a a professor at the Mas- gy, Berners-Lee isn’t sure yes, we should logically II. q
$1 million prize funded sachusetts Institute of
by Google, one of many Technology and the Uni- Facebook loses search warrant
companies that made versity of Oxford.
a fortune as a result of web will become less challenge in New York court
But he fears parts of the
Berners-Lee’s efforts to
make the internet more accessible in the U.S. if
accessible. He man- the Federal Communi- ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — strained” by the law relat- based Facebook chal-
aged that largely by fig- cation Commission dis- Facebook has lost a le- ing to who can challenge lenged the warrants, which
uring out a simple way mantles regulations pro- gal fight against a New search warrants. it said were overbroad. In
to post documents, pic- tecting “net neutrality.” York City prosecutor who Prosecutors in Manhattan a statement, a spokesper-
tures and video — ev- That’s the principle that sought search warrants sought search warrants in son said the company was
erything, really, beyond internet service provid- for hundreds of user ac- 2013 for the accounts of disappointed by the ruling
plain text — online. ers should treat all web- counts. 381 people in connection and is continuing to evalu-
SPINNING THE WEB sites equally instead of The New York state Court with a disability benefits ate its legal options.
Starting in 1989, Bern- favoring some destina- of Appeals on Tuesday fraud case against New The case has been closely
ers-Lee began working tions that might be will- ruled that while the case York City police and fire watched by social media
on ways digital object ing to pay for special raised important questions retirees. companies, civil libertar-
could be identified and treatment. about privacy it was “con- Menlo Park, California- ians and prosecutors.q