When in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee wrote the code underlying the World Wide Web—and then released it for free use—he was aware of the fantastic and terrible potentials for the new technology. He has been “horrified” to see some of those worst possibilities realized in the last year. Now he is working on a platform at MIT to re-decentralize and re-democratize online life: Solid.
The Solid project “aims to radically change the way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership as well as improved privacy.” It is based on the belief that Internet users should have the freedom to choose where their data resides and who is allowed to access it. Solid is sponsored by the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Mastercard. Follow it on Twitter @SolidMIT.
Berners-Lee is the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, which is working for a world where everyone has the same rights and opportunities online. That includes establishing the open Web as a basic right and a public good. It publishes the Web Index, the world’s first measure of the World Wide Web’s contribution to social, economic and political progress in countries across the world. Follow it @webfoundation.