WWW inventor Tim Berners-Lee calls social networks a silo

BANGALORE, INDIA: As big data becomes the new buzz word, it is crafting new rules for internet freedom. Even as the recent International Telecommunications Union (ITU) treaty set out general principles for ensuring the free flow of information around the world, the inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee was critical about the social networks.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum-2013, he said: "They put their photographs into Flickr. The simplest thing in world, you'd think, would be to share these photos with Facebook friends and LindedIn colleagues. But you can't do that, because these social networks are a silo," Berners-Lee said.

He also articulated how beneficial big data can be in terms of expanding the technology horizon. He says: "We have to understand global warming and cancer - make data available to scientists everywhere."

Referring to compact discs, he said: "We need to find a whole other new business model. We should develop a new payment protocol so when you're using things it becomes easy to pay."

Berners-Lee also called upon governments to release data about pothole locations and hospital health outcome rather than military information.

In an interview to BBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said the power of the web lies in anybody putting their ideas and starting discussions online. When his attention was drawn to the underlying threats to the internet freedom, he said: there is a need to be sensitive and understand what we are comfortable with."