When Sir Tim, using the existing internet as foundation, created the web, quite rudimentary from what we see today, he specifically asked his superiors at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) to allow the innovation to be shared freely in order for the web to grow. And so it did. Decades later, that commitment to share has revolutionized the 21st century.

In local parlance, we say “sharing is caring”- the transfer of internet technology has transformed lives and changed communities across the globe. We are now in the age of big data and internet plus where information is shared across a wide range of platforms such as smart health, e-commerce, and internet finance, smart tourism, agriculture and areas including education and energy which have become 21st century marvels.

In Africa for example, in South Africa there is Snapscan, a mobile payment application, clones of Apple Pay and WeChat Pay that works using QR codes. In Kenya and Nigeria there is Sendy, an Uber-style motorbike delivery service that allows users to track their delivery via a phone application and in Ghana there is Paysail, a unique out-of-the-box payroll management application that organizes employee payroll embedded with Ghanaian tax codes. These are just a few of the innovation superhighway taking place on the continent as a result of shared internet technology.

In the US, China, Japan and South Korea, the internet is shaping technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Both large and small enterprises are adopting these technologies which incorporate the internet as a key element to promote their business and services. Sectors including design, cars, gaming, e-commerce, property and real estate are being transformed to what the future will look like.

These are some of the great advantages of the internet, which far supersedes the challenges we are encountering currently. Although the sophistication of cybercrime and the use computers for espionage remains unabated, the benefits of the internet are enormous.

In building a community of common future in cyberspace, security is of utmost importance, therefore ensuring that cyberwarfare for example is kept at bay is one of the key policies I hope would be strongly mooted at the conference to be attended by experts from fields including cyber security.

In sum, the ultimate purpose of the Wuzhen Conference, the fourth in as many years, is seeking for inclusiveness in the development of the internet for the greater good, which is why the internet should have no national or sectoral boundaries as stated by President Xi.

The author is a former Ghanaian Journalist.