Saturday, September 29, 2018

Tim Berners-Lee re-does the web.

Ever notice how more and more information about you seems to be floating around out there on the web, and out of your reach? The father of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, he noticed.

I've always believed the web is for everyone. That's why I and others fight fiercely to protect it. The changes we've managed to bring have created a better and more connected world. But for all the good we've achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas.

Today, I believe we've reached a critical tipping point, and that powerful change for the better is possible - and necessary.

This is why I have, over recent years, been working with a few people at MIT and elsewhere to develop Solid, an open-source project to restore the power and agency of individuals on the web.

Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we've all discovered, this hasn't been in our best interests. Solid is how we evolve the web in order to restore balance - by giving every one of us complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way.

Solid is a platform, built using the existing web. It gives every user a choice about where data is stored, which specific people and groups can access select elements, and which apps you use. It allows you, your family and colleagues, to link and share data with anyone. It allows people to look at the same data with different apps at the same time.


Truthfully I have no idea what this is or how it works, but if it can get Google and Facebook out of my personal stuff, I'll be a big fan.

The Phantom

1 comment:

dienw said...

Thanks. Registered.