A new World Wide Web?
It sounds impossible to create.
Except to the man who invented the modern day internet in the first place.
His name is Tim Berners-Lee, and he's a scientist at MIT who just announced on his blog that he's going on sabbatical because something is wrong with the internet.
"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."
The change he's talking about is being built by inrupt, his tech startup that's now coming out of stealth mode. The startup is building an open source project called Solid:
"Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value... 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."
This includes the use of what you might think of as personal information pods. This is where your information is locked up and used solely at your discretion.
Berners-Lee writes that "personal empowerment through data" is the driving forced behind the Solid project.
Fast Company also interviewed him recently, and the article concluded like this:
The man who gave the web away for free has never been motivated by money. Still, his plans could impact billion-dollar business models that profit off of control over data. It’s not likely that the big powers of the web will give up control without a fight.
When asked about this, Berners-Lee says flatly: “We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight. We are not asking their permission.”
