Sir Tim Berners-Lee offers great insight into the future of the Internet

Sir Tim Berners-Lee offers great insight into the future of the Internet

World Wide Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee has shared his vision of its future and hopes it will be even better than current Web3 speculation.

Originally created as an online data exchange, communication and collaboration platform for scientists, the first website was created for CERN researchers and established the standards still used today, such as URL, HTTP and HTML.

The Internet hit the mainstream when it entered the Web2 phase, which paved the way for mobile apps and platforms. It also saw the introduction of the cloud that underpins many IT activities today.

web3 and solid

Berners-Lee is currently working on a new data exchange standard, called Solid, which is expected to support identity management tools such as global single sign-on (SSO), global access control, and universal APIs focused on people.

Solid(opens in a new tab) is poised to challenge the idea that the web's revenue should come primarily from advertising, with an emphasis on privacy. The idea is that users can share their data in interoperable and decentralized data stores called "Pods".

To commercialize the project, Berners-Lee is working in a company called Inrupt, which is made up of investors, entrepreneurs, developers, and academics. The company states (opens in a new tab) that it aims to "individuals in control of their data, organizations new opportunities to create value for customers, and developers to thrive in an open innovation marketplace.

According to VentureBeat(opens in a new tab), Berners-Lee previously used Solid to store its own data, including bank statements, documents, photos, music, IoT data, and exercise data. In this case, it is said that you access your data through a Mac Mini.

He thinks the significance of this new era could be greater than his first iteration, as he sees huge security benefits for personal customers, as well as government and healthcare agencies.