After 15 years working on developing a safer and more accessible internet, the World Wide Web Foundation (WF) is set to close.
Foundation co-founders Rosemary Leith and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, confirmed the decision in a letter shared online by the organization.
The letter details how the Foundation’s initial mission has largely been accomplished, however new challenges lie ahead that will need their own attention.
WWW Foundation declares mission accomplished
Founded in 2009 when only around one in five had access to the internet, the letter draws attention to new and emerging challenges in a world where nearly three-quarters (70%) of the global population is online.
Berners-Lee and Leith thanked the WF’s supporters for helping to “move the needle,” however the data-centric nature of Web 2.0 has come along with its own challenges.
“The threats to the Web have increased too, social media’s dominant business model has brought about the commoditisation of users data and a concentration of power contrary to Tim’s original vision,” it added.
To tackle this problem, Berners-Lee plans to end the Foundation and devote his time and resources to developing decentralized technologies like the Solid Protocol, which he hopes will return control of personal data to individuals.
The Protocol, which has been in the works since 2015, aligns with an open letter authored by Berners-Lee in 2023 where he emphasized the urgent need to restore the decentralized, user-controlled internet he had previously envisioned. The founder of the web has spoken out about how the internet is “dominated by the self-interest of several corporations” on several occasions.
WF’s letter continues: “We pay tribute to the amazing partnerships we’ve formed with colleagues, other NGOs, governments, private funders and advocates in the space.”
Looking ahead, the Solid Protocol, sometimes referred to as Web 3.0 plans to structure the internet via decentralized data stores called Pods.
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