Whilst the content of Tim Berners-Lee’s Dimbleby Lecture was of great interest, it’s presentation was abysmal.
Berners-Lee gave a succinct history of the WWW, a précis of its current state, why and how its damaged, why it needs a ‘mid-course correction’, and how to go about achieving that. It was packed with information and insights, and one hopes it will stimulate change for good. He is a remarkable man, and history may well come to judge him as being more significant than Darwin.
But he was sadly let down in this lecture by its presentation. Changing camera shots every 20 seconds whilst ‘all’ the lecturer is doing is talking at a lectern is distracting. Compounding this with cuts to audience members, seemingly populated by chin stroking celebs, served only to dilute and trivialise the message. I shut the picture off and just listened.
Berners-Lee gave a succinct history of the WWW, a précis of its current state, why and how its damaged, why it needs a ‘mid-course correction’, and how to go about achieving that. It was packed with information and insights, and one hopes it will stimulate change for good. He is a remarkable man, and history may well come to judge him as being more significant than Darwin.
But he was sadly let down in this lecture by its presentation. Changing camera shots every 20 seconds whilst ‘all’ the lecturer is doing is talking at a lectern is distracting. Compounding this with cuts to audience members, seemingly populated by chin stroking celebs, served only to dilute and trivialise the message. I shut the picture off and just listened.
My television has a useful energy saving facility which allows one to switch of the screen as its maximum saving level. Just what I should have used for this lecture.
Most disappointing
Berners Lee is an appalling and badly informed public speaker. The way he dealt with a question from Molly Russell’s father was quite frankly appalling. In case you don’t remember the name Molly was a teenager who took her own life in 2017 after viewing graphic self harm images on social media. BL behaved as if he had no knowledge of the case or of the issues involved. I was disgusted. The lecture left me feeling very pessimistic about the future of the web if left in the hands of the likes of him, I'm afraid. The notion of internet governance still isn’t being taken seriously enough imho and certainly doesn’t attract enough public attention. Ever heard it mentioned by your parliamentary candidates? No. Neither have I 
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