Happy 25th Birthday To The Internet!

March 12th, 2014 is the 25th anniversary of the internet. Sir Tim Berners-Lee proposed creating a network to allow worldwide sharing of information via computers. Pew Research Center reports 14% of American adults used the internet in 1995. That figure is now 87%. We use the internet to send electronic mail, pay bills, get our news and purchase almost anything we want.
People can visit a virtually limitless number of websites to obtain a vast amount of information. Data has become the "cash crop" of the 21st century. Corporate entities are constantly searching for new ways to grow, and monetize databases.
Social media enables users to reconnect with people they haven't seen in decades... That may not always be a good thing.
People who move far from home can listen to their favorite radio stations on the web. The station where I work, 99.9 KTDY, has online listeners in more than 30 countries. News travels fast on the web. Inaccurate information sometimes seems to travel even faster. Berners-Lee has concerns about the future of his creation. He's feels the web is becoming too restrictive, and urges users to push for an internet "Bill of Rights."
"Unless we have an open, neutral internet we can rely on without worrying about what's happening at the back door, we can't have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities, and diversity of culture."  - Sir Tim Berners-Lee