Be it coincidence or fate, yesterday was a very interesting day in Ghana because it was the Centenary of Ghana’s Founding President Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the Internet Community in Ghana had a rare privilege of welcoming Sir Tim Berners-Lee. I am privileged to be a part of both events.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah
At the Berners-Lee event, which took place at the Advanced Information Technology Institute also called the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence, one quote by the man at the centre of the whole discussion caught my attention. This was in response to a question posed by Dorothy Gordon, Director General of the AITI-KACE on why he made WWW a free and open product.
The only way to keep ONE WEB is when you keep it FREE and OPEN.
That was his response and he went to say that if he had priced it, we would be having MMM, KKK, PPP and stuff like that which makes a lot of economic sense. Eventually, many more entrants would have entered the space and saturated the market. The One Web reality we have now would not have happened. This is how noble the man can actually be.
As it turns out, today is OneWebDay and it is worth noting that this man’s invention is arguably the greatest internet tool and has contributed immensely to bridging the digital divide. Below is a video I saw on the Ghana Connect website inviting more video responses on how the web is helping overcome the digital division.
Well, I was able to take a picture with him even though too many people wanted to say something to the man :-). Remember how government officials and MP’s were trying hard to get a photo glimpse of Obama when he was in Ghana? Peace out!
