In a surprising announcement, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the web, and Rosemary Leith, co-founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, revealed that the organization is ceasing operations. The decision comes after 16 years of advocating for a safe, trusted, open web.
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However, Berners-Lee is not giving up on the Foundation's goals; instead, he's just redirected his efforts to the Solid Protocol. That said, some of the Foundation's original objectives have been achieved. These include:
Expanding internet access: When the Foundation started in 2009, only 20% of the world had internet access. Now, nearly 70% of the global population is online. Advocating for affordable internet: The foundation set a benchmark called "1 for 2", which stated that 1GB of mobile data shouldn't cost over 2% of a person's average monthly income. Not only was this successful, but now the Alliance for Affordable Internet is advocating for "1 for 5", where the goal is for the cost of 5GB of broadband, both mobile and fixed, to be no more than 2% of someone's average monthly income by 2026. Promoting net neutrality: The foundation helped win victories for net neutrality in the EU, India, and the US.Berners-Lee and Leith cited the dramatically changed landscape of internet access as a key factor in their decision. The Foundation's original mission has evolved with most of the world now online, at affordable prices, and numerous organizations now defending web users' rights.
From where they sit, the top threat to users' rights is dominant, centralized social media platforms, such as Facebook, X, and Reddit. This dominance has led to the commoditization of user data and a concentration of power that's contrary to Berners-Lee's original vision of the web.
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As he recently explained, his vision was "to allow for collaboration, foster compassion, and generate creativity -- what I term the three Cs. It was to be a tool to empower humanity. The first decade of the web fulfilled that promise -- the web was decentralized with a long tail of content and options. It created small, more localized communities, provided individual empowerment, and fostered huge value."
That's not the web we use today. So, as the pair explained: "The conclusion we have reached is that Tim's passion for restoring power over and control of data to individuals and actively building powerful collaborative systems needs to be the highest priority going forward. In order to best achieve this, Tim will focus his efforts on supporting his vision for the Solid Protocol and other decentralized systems."
This shift aims to restore power and control of data to individuals and build powerful collaborative systems. So, what is the Solid Protocol?
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It's a set of specifications and technologies designed to decentralize the web and give users more control over their personal data. It's built on top of existing web standards, such as HTTP, REST, WebID-TLS, and Web Access Control.
End users will keep their data in pods. These are secure personal web servers for storing your information, rather than Google, Meta, or X. This data will be kept in Linked Data formats, such as Resource Description Framework. Users will use WebID, a decentralized authentication and identification system to access data. You will enable other people to access or use your data via a variety of access control systems. In short, you will control your data and no one else.
Will enough people and groups support Berners-Lee's vision to make it viable? Or has the pendulum swung so much towards the corporate web that his vision will remain an unfulfilled dream? Stay tuned.