World Wide Web inventor awarded Seoul Peace Prize

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Tue, September 26, 2023 | 06:15

Foreign Affairs

World Wide Web inventor awarded Seoul Peace Prize

Posted : 2022-09-28 16:10

Updated : 2022-09-28 17:50

Tim Berners-Lee / Newsis

By Kang Seung-woo

The Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation announced, Wednesday, that Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has been selected as the recipient of this year's Seoul Peace Prize for his dedication to developing a peace movement to secure and protect individual data sovereignty.

The award was established in 1990 to commemorate the success of the 24th Olympic Games which were held in Seoul, Korea in 1988, an event in which 160 nations from around the world took part, fostering harmony and friendship.

According to the foundation, the eight-member selection committee conducted an in-depth screening of the candidates, including former and current heads of state and others from a range of areas, who were committed to building international peace in the fields of human rights, democratization, international cooperation, anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons, human welfare, women, children, environment, science technology and culture.

Berners-Lee, 67, developed the World Wide Web in 1989 and released it for free to people around the world. He is regarded as a true giant of the digital age who made the internet available to the general public, which was previously only used by professionals and a limited group of people.

"I am really honored to receive the prestigious Seoul Peace Prize," said Berners-Lee.

Foundation Chairman Yeom Jae-ho acknowledged Berners-Lee for his contribution to the "pursuit of positive peace by removing all structural restrictions that oppress peace including the elimination of the structural control of personal information beyond the concept of negative peace." Negative peace refers to the absence of violence. When, for example, a ceasefire is enacted, a negative peace will ensue.

Berners-Lee's invention has helped guarantee and expand the protection of the basic rights of individuals, such as individual freedom and equality, freedom of speech, and improvement of individual welfare and quality of life through technology, especially information, according to Yeom.

The recipient will receive a certificate, a plaque, and prize money of $200,000 (287 million won) and the award ceremony will be held in Seoul later this year.

Berners-Lee is promoting the Solid Project, an open-source foundation for building a web ecosystem where individuals have control over their own data usage rights.

In other words, Berners-Lee argues that in a solid-based web environment, each individual who provided personal information should have data sovereignty, the choice of where his/her data will be stored, whether a specific individual or group can access selected elements, and which application to use.

Through this process, Berners-Lee is opposing the growing influence of a small number of large internet companies that rely on user information. The internet user rights movement called Privacy and Privacy Protection on the Internet was launched with the hope that users will be able to control their personal information.

Also, Berners-Lee pointed out that authoritarian countries such as those found in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa, China, Russia and North Korea are banning, restricting and controlling the internet to maintain their regimes' security.

The list of the previous award winners includes Juan Antonio Samaranch, a former president of the International Olympic Committee, former United Nations Secretary Generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon and many more.

ksw@koreatimes.co.kr