After fifteen years of fighting to make the web safer and more accessible, the World Wide Web Foundation is shutting down.
In a letter [PDF] shared via the organization's website, co-founders Sir Tim Berners-Lee – inventor of the World Wide Web – and Rosemary Leith explain that the organization's mission has been somewhat accomplished and a new battle needs to be waged.
When the foundation was founded in 2009, just over 20 percent of the world had access to the web and relatively few organizations were trying to change that, say Sir Tim and Leith. A decade and a half later, with nearly 70 percent of the world online, there are many similar non-governmental organizations trying to make the web more accessible and affordable.
The two founders thank their supporters over the years who "have enabled us to move the needle in a big way" with regard to access and affordability. But the issues facing the web have changed, they insist, and the foundation believes other advocacy groups can take it from here.
Chief among the more pressing problems, claim Sir Tim and Leith, is the social media business model that commoditized user data and concentrates power with platforms, contrary to Sir Tim's original vision for the web.
To address that threat, Sir Tim intends to dismantle his foundation so he can focus on decentralized technology.
"We, along with the Web Foundation board, have been asking ourselves where we can have the most impact in the future," the authors say. "The conclusion we have reached is that Tim’s passion on 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 to support his vision for the Solid Protocol and other decentralized systems."
The Solid Protocol is "a specification that lets people store their data securely in decentralized data stores called Pods," as the project's website explains.
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Pods stands for "personal online data stores," which can be hosted by an individual or provider. They're essentially databases of social graph data, user-created files, and online activity information that can be made available to apps and services under a permission model similar to what's available on mobile phones.
Sir Tim has been working on Solid since at least 2015 when he received a million dollar gift to develop the project.
In an open letter published in March to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the world wide web, Sir Tim elaborates on the two problems at hand – corporate control of the web and the market for personal data.
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"The first is the extent of power concentration, which contradicts the decentralized spirit I originally envisioned," he argues. "This has segmented the web, with a fight to keep users hooked on one platform to optimize profit through the passive observation of content. This exploitative business model is particularly grave in this year of elections that could unravel political turmoil.
"Compounding this issue is the second, the personal data market that has exploited people’s time and data with the creation of deep profiles that allow for targeted advertising and ultimately control over the information people are fed."
Part of the solution, he contends, is the Solid Protocol.
"We can return the value that has been lost and restore control over personal data," he said.
Speaking of losses, for its 2022 fiscal year, the World Wide Web Foundation reported revenue of $4.08 million and expenses of $4.97 million. ®