According to NTC keynote speaker, David Weinberger, a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center, the real change created by the Web is not the creation of tools like blogs, wikis and tags. The real and more important change is about who controls what is interesting and important to us, and who has authority. The Web is "ours".

In the offline world, everything has its place. For example, everyone's New York Times front page looks the same because the editors are working with a limited space, but the Web doesn't work that way.

The web is built by links. Each link is a "little act of selflessness". People say that bloggers are narcissistic people writing in their pajamas, but Weinberger argues that when bloggers create a link, they are saying, "Here is something else that is interesting. Go away. Go somewhere else because I have confidence that you will come back." If there aren't any links, there isn't a Web.

One of the appeals of the Web's embracing of fallibility and transparency, which is not a part of "broadcast authority", is that is embraces our humanity, our own fallibility and lets us be human again.

Broadcast authority goes for the lowest common denominator to reach the most people. On the other hand blogs and the Web allows us to make issues complex again. For example, when Bush gives a speech about immigration that is short and simple, within minutes after he finishes, bloggers have examined the issue from all angles.

The Web allow us to externalize meaning.

The Web is ours and we are doing it in our voice . . . taking back our interests. . . the world is a lot more interesting than we've been told.

I really enjoyed the talk, my only question is, how can we make the Web truly "ours" by creating access for everyone.

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