HOW DO WE ACCESS WEB

How Do You Access the Web?

With a Browser. How to access the Web is quite obvious for those people who open their preferred browser multiple times a day. There are many different browsers, running on almost all types of computers running all kinds of operating systems. Nowadays, almost all the browsers are free, but some are more compliant with Web standards than others, which enable them to provide a better user experience on a far greater number of sites.

With Your Voice. However, there are other ways than with a Web browser to access and interact with Web content. Since 1999, it is possible to use your voice to access the Web, and this is called a Voice Browser usable through any fixed or mobile phone. The keypad of the phone and your voice allow you to navigate on the Web, follow links, and fill forms in the same way as the keyboard and the mouse on your computer. Your ears can receive information in the same way as your eyes viewing the screen on your computer. Or through voice access as illustrated above. Almost all phones are now capable to run a mobile browser and access the web. Mobile phones are critically important to extend the reach of the Web, particularly in developing countries where people are far more likely to have access to a mobile phones than a computer. Indeed, more than 4 billion of people have a mobile subscription, and more than 80% of the World population is covered by a mobile network.

How Do You Contribute to the Web?

The Web is not only a space of information, it is a tool to connect people with shared interests. The power of the Web is to enable anybody to share information. For that, people need to have a way to author and publish information.

Thanks to the Web 2.0 revolution, it is now easy to use blog engines, social networks, and content management systems to publish information without any knowledge on HTML, or without any technical expertise.

We are also starting to see voice access for publishing information, as well as accessing information.

Mobile phones also have the capability to empower their users to publish information, using specific mobile blog engines, voice, and simpler mechanism like SMS (see Twitter).  Today, more than 4 billion (and growing) people have mobile phones, and thus have the potential to be creators and consumers of content on the Web.

How Does the Web Compare to Other Ways to Voice Your Opinion?

How can someone without any particular network of relations, without being connected to a specific media, voice an opinion and be heard by the world? It is difficult for an average citizen to publish an article in a newspaper, to appear on TV, or be heard on a radio. To the contrary, it is very easy to publish a document on the Web, and thus be heard by an interested subset of the 1.7 billion (and growing) users of the Web. In addition, voicing an opinion on the Web is inexpensive, if not free (only a couple of minutes in an Internet cafe or at home), immediate, and durable. If the Web site is run well, the content could be available for decades.

The opportunity for anyone to voice an opinion, and to be heard, has been an important contributor to transparency and accountability of governments and industry.  The Web can enable a more participatory democracy, and allow the potential spread information to places where freedom of speech is not encouraged.