Tim Berners-Lee opened this year's British Computer Society's Lovelace Lecture by discussing the future of the internet and how it will cope with its own growth. In particular, Mr Berners-Lee stressed the need for greater interaction with users to ensure that the media developed in a way that was beneficial to all.
He explained: "By increasing the level of collaboration and creativity improvements can be made to the web. A new geography of free connectivity with more intuitive interfaces and new forms of democracy can be created."
"Ultimately, advances are most regularly achieved through the connection of people's half-formed ideas, whether they are scientific, political or cultural," added Mr Berners-Lee.
He also noted that there would be ongoing changes in the user interface, with increased applications designed to enable people to access data anywhere and from a range of different sources. However, he did warn that there were a number of challenges ahead, especially concerning the use of data policies.
Mr Berners-Lee is credited with creating the internet in 1989 during his employment with CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory.
