Web bill of rights

Earlier in the day, on the same TED stage, the father of the World Wide Web urged those in the conference's influential and innovative community to fight to keep life on the Internet free and open.

Tim Berners-Lee rallied support for creating a bill of rights for the Internet this year in the wake of revelations about extensive government surveillance.

Berners-Lee launched his Web We Want campaign last week.

He has repeatedly called for fewer controls on the Web, and has praised Snowden for revealing details of how the US government collects masses of online data.

Berners-Lee conceived the Web 25 years ago in his spare time at Geneva-based CERN, Europe's top particle physics lab.

"I want to use this anniversary to think about what kind of Web we want," Berners-Lee said, referring ideas to a Webat25.org website.

NSA to respond

Former intelligence contractor Snowden emerged from his Russian exile on Tuesday in the form of a remotely controlled robot to promise more sensational revelations about US spying programs.

The fugitive's face appeared on a screen as he maneuvered a wheeled android around the TED gathering, addressing an audience in Vancouver without ever leaving his hideaway.

"There are absolutely more revelations to come," he said. "Some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come."

Snowden used the conference to launch a global call to fight for privacy and Internet freedom.

He endorsed Berners-Lee's quest for a global Magna Carta laying out values and rights on the Internet.

Berners-Lee briefly joined Snowden's interview with TED curator Chris Anderson, and put the leaker in the hero camp.

US National Security Agency Deputy Director Rick Ledgett will appear at the TED gathering on Thursday via video link as a counterpoint to Snowden's talk, according to Anderson.