Inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is all set to take the internet to next level with his new decentralized web project Solid — where users control their data, not some multi-corporate firm.
Today, the online data that we shared on the internet is controlled by tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. They are using this data to target groups and individuals to seize more of the market, gain more power and stockpile yet more data. They are spying through all our all devices when we go online.
Online privacy has become a myth and it desperately needs a fix. Tim Berners-Lee, one who give us the web is now on the mission to reshape it — evolve it in favor of individuals. Because he knows people want to have a web they can trust.
According to Tim Berners-Lee, “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.”
Solid — an open-source project developed by Tim Berners-Lee and a few people at MIT is going to change the current model of the internet, where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value.
Solid is going to 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 — Tim Berners-Lee wrote in a Medium post.
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. It opens brand new avenues for creativity, problem-solving, and commerce.
Berners-Lee explains, “Imagine if all your current apps talked to each other, collaborating and conceiving ways to enrich and streamline your personal life and business objectives? That’s the kind of innovation, intelligence and creativity Solid apps will generate. With Solid, you will have far more personal agency over data — you decide which apps can access it.”
In order to provide his full to the development of Solid Berners-Lee is not only taking a sabbatical from MIT, but he is also reducing his involvement in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). He also founded a company called Inrupt to provide the infrastructure that allows Solid to run and ensures the integrity and quality of the new web built on Solid. And Berners-Lee is incredibly optimistic for this next era of the web.
