Web inventor sees more interactive net

Tim Berners-Lee, the scientist credited with inventing the world wide web, has outlined his hopes of a future where the web becomes more personal and responsive to the user.

According to Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the online experience will be enhanced through the use of metadata technology, which will allow web content to carry detailed descriptions of its properties and relationship with other content.

One such technology being developed by the W3C is Resource Description Framework (RDF), a system that uses extensible markup language (XML) to represent this type of complex metadata.

Speaking in London today at the launch of Global Crossing's European datacentre called GlobalCenter, Berners-Lee said: "Initially the idea of the web was a creative and collaborative space where people could build things together."

"But most information on the web today is used for reading not interacting. One of the most exciting things that I see is when technology allows people to be more collaborative."

The use of metadata is one of the most exciting potential ways of personalising and making the web more responsive for individuals, Berners-Lee said.

He said web content lacks information such as labeling, cataloging and descriptive information that is structured in such a way that it allows web pages to be properly searched and processed by computers. Metadata will allow this and will mean users can get more from the web than just reading information, he said.