Marking the Web’s 35th Birthday: An Open Letter

Underlying its whole infrastructure was the intention to allow for collaboration, foster compassion and generate creativity — what I term the 3 C’s. It was to be a tool to empower humanity.

instead of embodying these values, the web has instead played a part in eroding them. The consequences are increasingly far reaching. From the centralisation of platforms to the AI revolution, the web serves as the foundational layer of our online ecosystem — an ecosystem that is now reshaping the geopolitical landscape, driving economic shifts and influencing the lives of people around the World.

Part of the solution is the Solid Protocol, a specification and a movement to provide each person with their own ‘personal online data store’, known as a POD. We can return the value that has been lost and restore control over personal data. With Solid, individuals decide how their data is managed, used, and shared. This approach has already begun to take root, as seen in Flanders, where every citizen now has their own POD after Jan Jambon announced four years ago that all Flanders citizens should have a POD. This is the future of data ownership and control, and it’s an example of the emergent movement that is poised to replace the outdated incumbent system.

there is a need, an urgent need, for others to do the same, to back the morally courageous leadership that is rising, collectivise their solutions, and to overturn the online world being dictated by profit to one that is dictated by the needs of humanity. It is only then that the online ecosystem we all live in will reach its full potential and provide the foundations for creativity, collaboration and compassion.

Forward-thinking legislation from governments worldwide can facilitate these solutions and help manage the current system more effectively.

we as citizens all over the world need to be engaged, and demand higher standards and greater accountability for our online experiences. The time is now to confront the dominant system’s shortcomings while catalysing transformative solutions that empower individuals. This emergent system, ripe with potential, is rising, and the tools for control are within reach.