Today is better than yesterday, tomorrow will be better than today

Before we get started, quick check on how long folks have been involved with W3C.

So here we are, 30 years. We’ve come so far in that time, as a consortium, an industry, as a society. That video reminds me of how quickly we take change for granted. New innovations, even the most impactful changes, rapidly become expected parts of our lives.

Because of that it’s great to step back and make sure we have perspective, and why our theme is “today is better than yesterday, tomorrow will be better than today.”

Today is better than yesterday.

It’s been a long time since I used a dial-up modem - thanks to that video for reminding us! My first dial in experience was in college on a 1200 baud modem. For those that aren’t familiar with that, basically that means that it would take nearly 6 hours to download a 3 MB file.

I had a friend with a 400 baud modem, which means basically for that same file we’d get a better transfer speed saving that file onto a disk and flying it to Tokyo from L.A.! And of course that file would have been nearly 190 times the size of the memory expansion I had on my first Timex/Sinclair.

All of that is easily, and for the most part rightly, forgotten today. We can exchange information, images and movies, thoughts and ideas, money and services, interact with our governments, interact with our friends, all the subsystems of society, in the blink of an eye, thanks in such large part to work done through this consortium and its members.

Getting where we are today didn’t happen easily. In fact, to date I think the Web was one of the most overhyped technologies in my experience. I believe it took a little over 10 years for the American stock markets to recover from the peaks reached during the dotcom boom. And yet here we are.

And that’s why I believe - Tomorrow will be better than today. But this isn’t a given. There are some that are observing that the Web is becoming a vehicle more for interconnecting machines than humans. Bots creating content for other bots to scan and analyze and generate more content for more bots. But we know this isn’t the endpoint. We, here in this consortium, know there is so much more work ahead to interconnect humanity.

As we look to making tomorrow better than today, I think about our principle, “Web for All”. The power of this principle comes down in large part to what we're capable of wanting. We as a consortium, we as citizens of the world. We've helped build a world of connections, of knowledge, of generative capabilities, but what does “the web” mean in the future? I shared my thoughts about the dotcom bubble in part to remind us all that excessive hype behind an idea doesn’t mean the idea itself is bad. We have a responsibility to think and re-think of what the web is and what humanity needs it to be.

And as for “all”, we are also leaving some behind. There are parts of the world, parts of society that don’t have access, are unable to use the web for many reasons.

So I ask you all, what more are we capable of wanting? What: of enablement and empowerment of the Web? Of bringing humanity closer together? Of analyzing who is being left behind with the progress we’ve made and how we change that?

I believe our brightest days are ahead, that the great public good of this project is shifting gears into the next phase and becoming even more impactful. And the world needs this from us, from all of you.

It’s a privilege to be amongst so many that have created an incredible history and I’m glad to have the chance to honor our community today for all it’s done. It’s perhaps and even greater privilege to be amongst so many that will be part of the future history of the web and technology that is yet to be written.

So without further ado, I’ll turn it over to others to help celebrate all we’ve done. Thank you!