Tim Berners-Lee Plans a New Internet Project: Solid
Tim Berners-Lee, widely recognized as one of the “fathers” of the modern internet, is preparing to launch a new project. He and a team of like-minded collaborators have been working on it for over nine months.
The project is called Solid, and its goal is to gradually create a decentralized network designed to break the monopoly of major internet companies. With Solid, developers will be able to build applications that work together but remain independent from each other and from the platform as a whole.
Restoring User Control Over Personal Data
Berners-Lee believes that one of the biggest problems with today’s internet is the loss of user control over personal data. The key difference between Solid and the current internet is that users will have complete control over all their data across any application. This means people can leave any service without leaving any of their information behind.
Berners-Lee showed Fast Company screenshots of one of the apps built on Solid. It’s a hybrid of an email client, cloud storage, messenger, music service, and task manager. He created this app for his own use but plans to share it with others soon.
Decentralized Voice Assistant and Future Plans
Berners-Lee is also working on a decentralized version of the Alexa voice assistant, called Charlie. Unlike Alexa, Charlie allows users to store their own data and not rely on information from the internet.
Tim Berners-Lee is the head of the World Wide Web Consortium. In March 2018, he published an open letter marking the 28th anniversary of the internet’s launch. In it, he expressed concern that large internet companies have monopolized the market and stifled the growth of smaller projects. He also expressed hope that users will realize they have the power to shape the future of the internet and its services. Users create demand for various services and have the right to reject terms they disagree with, choosing platforms that listen to their needs and respect their interests.
The Team and Impact
Until recently, Berners-Lee worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now, he is focused on his own company, Inrupt. Several other well-known IT industry figures and volunteer programmers are also involved in the project. Berners-Lee plans to attract investment, and while profit is not his main motivation, the Solid platform could have a major impact on the market and challenge the dominance of billion-dollar companies.