Marking the Web’s 35th Birthday: An Open Letter | Tim Berners-Lee

The Web marked its 35th year and Berners-Lee shared some thoughts on the state of the web. What a miraculous thing the web has been. "It was to be a tool to empower humanity." The fact that I’m writing this on my computer then hitting a few buttons and anyone in the world can read it instantly is certainly empowerment. Ever the engineer though, Berners-Lee hits frames his two primary concerns with his own invention.

There are two clear, connected issues to address. The first is the extent of power concentration, which contradicts the decentralised spirit I originally envisioned. This has segmented the web, with a fight to keep users hooked on one platform to optimise profit through the passive observation of content. This exploitative business model is particularly grave in this year of elections that could unravel political turmoil. Compounding this issue is the second, the personal data market that has exploited people’s time and data with the creation of deep profiles that allow for targeted advertising and ultimately control over the information people are fed.

Centralization and data ownership. I firmly agree with his position on this. I do think there are two movements that are making real progress here. The Indieweb is working hard to bring the web back to a human scale endeavor. There is a small but important revival of the web of old. The other is crypto. The core technology of crypto and blockchain is squarely aligned with decentralization and embodies "a tool to empower humanity" in ways that almost nothing else does.

He wrote a similar note on the 30th birthday.