If only Tim Berners-Lee had decided to start a web address or url with just 'http' he would have saved humanity the trouble of typing billions of // or double slashes. This semi-apology by the British inventor of the internet was frontpage news around the world for a while last week.

On Tuesday, Berners-Lee, who was in Amsterdam to accept an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam, said he was surprised by the commotion. "We have more important things to worry about."

These days Sir Timothy heads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). His passion is the smart, semantic web, based on easily accessible databases. And there is his latest project, Web 4 Social Development, which advocates internet access for developing countries. "Only 20 percent of the world's population is on the web; it's about getting the other 80 percent online."

"Being online can help you make money, which you can use in turn for necessities like clean drinking water or education. On the other hand there are people who say it is indecent to give people in poor countries internet access without giving them decent health care first."

How quickly will developing countries be able to join the online world?

"Not as quickly as the first 20 percent, because the infrastructure isn't there yet. When I invented the web the network was already there. Most universities were on the internet. Over there it is not just a technical matter, like deciding which networking techniques to use. The questions are of a social nature. Should you offer internet access at home or at one central location in the village? And will people in Africa or Latin America benefit from the social networks that are now designed for American teenagers? They might be better off developing their own applications."

Would you have designed the web differently if you had known that it is now used to, say, run nuclear plants?

"The web is an open platform, a blank sheet of paper. You can use it anyway you want. The creativity of people using the web is much greater than we could have imagined.

"What we need now is a system that will allow users to verify the authenticity of information on the web. To filter the high quality information from the rubbish. Take pictures on the web: you want to know that the pixels haven't been messed with, like in those pictures from Iraq where smoke was added. [He means the Reuters picture of Israeli bombardments in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2006.] And it's not just about the source of information either; it needs to be clear what you can do with the information."

Why are you in favour of opening up databases and linking between them?

"There is a great reluctance on the part of governments to put data on the web. But if you link data they become more powerful. We know from experience that people will find data on the web and use them in ways you hadn't thought of. That is the added value of the web."

Where could the internet still go wrong?

"If one company gains too much control over the web. No. I'm not referring to one specific company. It's funny how people can be afraid of one company, like Microsoft, and then completely forget about it as soon as another company like Google enters the field. Before Microsoft, the web was entirely dominated by Netscape. They owned the web."

Would you rather be remembered as the man who invented the internet, or as the man who improved it?