World Wide Web Foundation is Shutting Down (theregister.com) 11
After fifteen years of fighting to make the web safer and more accessible, the World Wide Web Foundation is shutting down. From a report: In a letter shared via the organization's website, co-founders Sir Tim Berners-Lee -- inventor of the World Wide Web -- and Rosemary Leith explain that the organization's mission has been somewhat accomplished and a new battle needs to be waged. When the foundation was founded in 2009, just over 20 percent of the world had access to the web and relatively few organizations were trying to change that, say Sir Tim and Leith. A decade and a half later, with nearly 70 percent of the world online, there are many similar non-governmental organizations trying to make the web more accessible and affordable.
The two founders thank their supporters over the years who "have enabled us to move the needle in a big way" with regard to access and affordability. But the issues facing the web have changed, they insist, and the foundation believes other advocacy groups can take it from here. Chief among the more pressing problems, claim Sir Tim and Leith, is the social media business model that commoditized user data and concentrates power with platforms, contrary to Sir Tim's original vision for the web. To address that threat, Sir Tim intends to dismantle his foundation so he can focus on decentralized technology. "We, along with the Web Foundation board, have been asking ourselves where we can have the most impact in the future," the authors say. "The conclusion we have reached is that Tim's passion on restoring power over and control of data to individuals and actively building powerful collaborative systems needs to be the highest priority going forward. In order to best achieve this, Tim will focus his efforts to support his vision for the Solid Protocol and other decentralized systems."
The two founders thank their supporters over the years who "have enabled us to move the needle in a big way" with regard to access and affordability. But the issues facing the web have changed, they insist, and the foundation believes other advocacy groups can take it from here. Chief among the more pressing problems, claim Sir Tim and Leith, is the social media business model that commoditized user data and concentrates power with platforms, contrary to Sir Tim's original vision for the web. To address that threat, Sir Tim intends to dismantle his foundation so he can focus on decentralized technology. "We, along with the Web Foundation board, have been asking ourselves where we can have the most impact in the future," the authors say. "The conclusion we have reached is that Tim's passion on restoring power over and control of data to individuals and actively building powerful collaborative systems needs to be the highest priority going forward. In order to best achieve this, Tim will focus his efforts to support his vision for the Solid Protocol and other decentralized systems."
Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Score:2, Informative)
30 year WWW birthday party headlines (Score:2)
- 30 years - JavaScript, still faulty and broken but loved by all
- 30 years - Almost got desktop app functionality on the web
Re: Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Score:1)
"
W3C director and inventor of the Web Tim Berners-Lee last week voiced his support for the EME plan,
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https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/over-many-objections-w3c-approves-drm-for-html5/
TIL it's only been fifteen years of WWWF (Score:3)
TIL it's only been fifteen years of WWWF.
I've been doing web stuff since 1993.
The WWF (and Tim) had already "sold out" (Score:5, Informative)
In 2017, ignoring all criticism and all ongoing negotiations, Tim and the WWF pushed an HTML5 standard with DRM, with zero protections or safeties.
That betrayal of all the principles of the open web, that sellout to the mafiAAAs might have been what killed the WWF, with today just being the closing of the mausoleum.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/amid-unprecedented-controversy-w3c-greenlights-drm-web [eff.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Well, the reasons given for the shutting seem fishy to me. Maybe they plan to get involved in conflicting endeavours.
Positive is... (Score:3)
Great (Score:2)
Safer and More Accessible ? (Score:2)
Good thing their done, my eyes cant roll any more without falling out.