After fifteen years of working to develop a more secure and accessible Internet, the World Wide Web Foundation (WF) is about 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 original mission has been largely achieved, but new challenges lie ahead that will require their own attention.
WWW Foundation declares mission accomplished
Founded in 2009 when only about one in five had access to the internet, the letter draws attention to new and emerging challenges in a world where almost three-quarters (70%) of the world’s population is online.
Berners-Lee and Leith thanked WF supporters for helping to “move the needle,” but the data-centric nature of Web 2.0 also brings its own challenges.
“Threats to the Internet have also increased, social media’s dominant business model has led to the commoditization of user data and a concentration of power that runs counter to Tim’s original vision,” it added.
To address this problem, Berners-Lee plans to disband the Foundation and devote his time and resources to developing decentralized technologies such as the Solid protocolwhich he hopes will return control of personal data to individuals.
The Protocol, which has been in the works since 2015, follows on from an open letter written by Berners-Lee in 2023, in which he emphasized the urgent need to restore the decentralized, user-controlled internet he previously envisioned. The founder of the Internet has spoken out on several occasions about how the Internet is “dominated by the self-interests of different companies.”
WF’s letter continues: “We pay tribute to the great partnerships we have formed with colleagues, other NGOs, governments, private funders and advocates in the space.”
Looking ahead, Solid Protocol, also known as Web 3.0, plans to structure the Internet through decentralized data storage called Pods.