The web: A million miles from the vision

"We are still not using computers for what we could be. We are mimicking the real world instead of using our imagination."

This claim from Robert Cailliau, the man who helped Tim Berners-Lee create the World Wide Web, may sound like a sweeping generalisation, but think about it for a moment.

When Berners-Lee and Cailliau first introduced global hypertext language to the internet community ten years ago, they were met with scepticism and even ridicule in many quarters.

What they imagined was an information system unlike any other. Instead of logical tiers of data, this would be a great global web of information. Intricately linked, impossible to map and open to all.

What exists now, a decade later, is a poor imitation of that original vision. Most data is reproduced in a simple page format copied from the offline world, companies fight over a limited supply of domain names, squabble over IP rights, and clash over proprietary systems.

Perhaps the greatest innovation which users took to their heart was the hyperlink - a quiet revolution in the way we see and use information - but even that is little appreciated and in many cases poorly applied.

There are still champions of innovation. The open-source movement has battled for recognition, and won its place in the market. Peer-to-peer computing threatens to revolutionise the way we work and trade, but it is up to everyone who uses the web to accept and enjoy change, rather than feel threatened by it.

Driving business online is crucial to the survival of the web, Berners-Lee himself has defended its commercialisation.

Though let's not forget that without the imagination of people like Berners-Lee and Cailliau who dare to stick their necks out, it wouldn't exist at all.