Yesterday I read an article summarizing a speech from Tim Berners-Lee at a MIT symposium comparing web access to water. His speech covered other topics on his perspective of the future of the web, but the thing that most caught my attention was his statement that web access should be considered a human right.

Living in this world today is all about web access. If you don’t have it, then you just don’t exist. If you think of charity, then you think of providing food and potable water to those in need, right? In my opinion, real charity provides for the needy while helping them become self-reliant. There are people out there thinking that human right is just a mater of living and meeting basic physiological needs.

People think and dream. We’re mostly driven by our dreams and the desire to strive, and the internet is been one of the most important tools to make most of our dreams come true, if used the right way. Anybody, in any part of the world can use the internet to learn a new language, study in an open course at MIT, learn a profession or even work entirely through the web, just as I do. Internet is the greatest catalyst for improving lives and empowering people with life changing knowledge. Ironically, it is that life changing aspect that has led so many authoritative governments to seize this right from its citizens.

According to Berners-Lee  speech, the distance between people empowered by the access to the web, and people that lacks it is growing bigger and bigger. How big does this gap have to get until we realize people have the right be enlightened?