Nobel peace prize for Tim Berners-Lee

Among a great many other people, I was rather surprised to see yet another politician, albeit a popular one in Barack Obama, getting a Nobel peace prize. He may have done great things, but at that level, he is more than adequately rewarded already - for a US president trying to cultivate world peace is, or at least should be, essentially part of the job.

I am very happy that tweetspace is buzzing with the idea that Tim Berners-Lee should get a Nobel. Let's look at the impact he has made on world peace, and let's also bear in mind that he didn't patent the idea of the World Wide Web. He perhaps could have done and if so could have become extremely rich, since the web has become probably the most useful tool for positive change in my lifetime.  (The hyperlink idea was actually already patented by Prestel, but the WWW brings that idea and links it to several others, so should be patentable too.)

The World Wide Web has been and will be an enormous force for human wellbeing generally, and more specifically I would argue that it is easily a more important contribution to world peace than the work of any politician to date, including Obama, though possibly excepting Gandhi.

Firstly, the web has enabled people to make links all over the world. People have friends now in every continent, and know on personal experience that people in another country can be just like them. And when you know a people is not so different, it is hard to get involved in a war against them. It becomes much harder for war-mongerers to raise support for their causes.

Secondly, it is much more difficult now to hide nasty regimes, because the web has allowed people to blog and tweet and get the message out, often in spite of great efforts by the authorities to prevent it. When people are oppressed, the whole world knows very quickly, and can apply pressure.

Thirdly, thanks to the world wide web, globalisation has accelerated greatly. With business, commerce and politics now increasingly globally interwoven, wars are now largely contained in the least connected parts of the world.

Fourthly, the world wide web also makes it much easier for people to become educated. A great deal of knowledge is available on the web for free, and the virtuous circles of technology development have helped make it available everywhere. Education makes people less likely to engage in warfare, since again they are more aware of the truth and less vulnerable to propaganda and prejudice.

Finally (there are probably lots of other factors I have forgotten here), the web has empowered people at grass roots level. It is easy to form large groups of people to pressurise leaders and companies in support of a cause, and so far at least it has mostly been good causes that have benefited from this power.

And on that point, I hope that my grass roots contribution will add a little weight to the many others that support rewarding Tim Berners-Lee with a Nobel Peace Prize. Failing that, by creating the platform that has so greatly accelerated so many other fields, he has earned the right to be considered for one in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature. He has made a huge contribution to human wellbeing and peace on earth, and unlike many with such ability, gave it away for the benefit of all instead of using it to become personally rich. He deserves a Nobel prize.