Tim Berners-Lee goes on the warpath: "One small step for the web ..."

I have always believed that the web is for everyone. That's why I and everyone else are fighting fiercely to protect him. The changes we have achieved have created a better and more connected world. But besides all the good that we have achieved, the network has become the engine of injustice and separation; influenced by powerful forces using it for their own purposes.

Today I believe that we have reached a critical turning point, and this fundamental change for the better is possible and necessary.

That is why I have worked with several people at MIT and other places in recent years to develop Solid , an open source project to restore power and the ability of individuals to act on the web..

Solid changes the current model, where users must transfer personal data to digital giants in exchange for subjective value. As we found out, it is not in our interests. Solid is how we develop the web to restore balance - by giving each of us complete control over the data, in person or not, in a revolutionary way.

Solid is a platform built using an existing web . It gives each user the right to decide where the data will be stored, which specific people and groups can access individual items and which applications you use. This allows you, your family and colleagues to link and share data with anyone. This allows people to simultaneously view the same data using different applications at the same time.

Solid provides incredible opportunities for creativity, problem solving and trading. This will open up to individuals, developers, and businesses completely new ways to represent, build, and find innovative, reliable, and useful applications and services. I see a lot of market prospects, including Solid apps and Solid data storage.

The data should give you rights and opportunities.

Solid is guided by the principle of “personal empowerment through data,” which we believe is fundamental to the success of the next Internet era. We believe that data should empower each of us .

Imagine if all your current applications spoke to each other, collaborating and understanding ways to enrich and optimize your personal life goals and business goals? This is the kind of innovation, intelligence and creativity that Solid applications will create.

With Solid, you have much more power over data — you decide which applications can access it.

Moment of introduction

In 2009, I said: "The Web , as I imagine it, we have not yet seen . " This was because people used web pages only for documents, not for data from a large web computer. Since then, we have seen a rise in open data, but not read / write data. For example, many open government data is produced on a one-way pipeline, so we can only view it. With Solid, this data becomes a network for reading and writing, where users can interact with each other and innovate, collaborate and share.

Meanwhile, however, there is a wave of anxiety and a special energy is hanging in the air, requiring change. People want their webwhich they can trust. People want applications to help them do what they want and what they need to do without spying on them. Applications that do not have a hidden motive to distract them with offers to buy this or that. People will pay for such quality and confidence. For example, today people pay for storing data in places like Dropbox. There is a need for Solid, and for another, useful approach that it will provide.

It will take a lot of effort to create a new Solid platform and implement its mass implementation, but I think that we have enough fuse to move the world into a new turning point.

So I took a break from MIT, reduced my daily participation in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and started a company called inruptwhere I will direct the next step of the web directly. Inrupt will be the infrastructure that allows Solid to flourish. Its mission is to provide commercial energy and an ecosystem to help protect the integrity and quality of a new web built on Solid.

There are many examples of open source work that have greatly benefited from the contribution of a well-funded company. While the open source community provides initiative and a deep source of innovation, ordinary web users as well as companies often search for applications and services from a commercial organization that also provides technical support and vital business support services.

I believe that the same model will be crucial to the success of Solid. The success of Inrupt is fully consistent with the success of Solid. My partner and third-party co-founder is John Bruce, an experienced business leader with the skills to fulfill my Solid vision. We share the same passion for creating a better and balanced web .

Together, Solid and Inrupt will provide a new experience that benefits every web user — something that cannot be done on the web today. Where individuals, developers and enterprises create and search for innovative, vital and business applications, their applications and services. Where we all find reliable services for the storage, provision and management of personal data.

I am incredibly optimistic about the next web era .

I will continue to work as the founder and director of the W3C, Web Foundation and the Open Data Institute, as they are vital components to protect what was - and what will be. Inrupt, a member of W3C, uses many standards and is part of the standards community. The Web Foundation protects rights as part of its activities to promote a free and open web that benefits humanity. And the Open Data Institute's mechanism for making data as open as possible while maintaining confidentiality is very helpful. I perform various roles, and when I work in one of the roles, I will always try to act in accordance with the interests of this organization.

These are very exciting times. I will strive to lead the Solid movement and develop future management. Inrupt will do many things: its first priority will be Solid ecosystem. With the right values ​​and basic corporate infrastructure, we will create useful systems that work for everyone.

The future is still much bigger than the past.

Follow our work here in inrupt and Solid .

Read the CEO post: “A New World of Opportunity”

Subscribe to inrupt on Twitter .

Questions? Email info@inrupt.com



Translation: Diana Sheremyeva

PS

This week, the Solid repository entered the top of the most popular new repositories on Github, second only to the MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 sources, re-populated here from the Computer History Museum.
- Solid Technology: it's time to rebuild the web

---

• Creator of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee changed the world, but he himself remained the same (2016)
• Tim Berners-Lee: We need to decentralize the Internet again (2014)
• April 30, 1993 WWW became public domain
• Tim Berners-Lee: Facebook can fragment the Network (2010)
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web is 25 years old. Keep it free and open (2014)
• Solid technology: it's time to rebuild the web

---