---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Richard Bennett <richard@bennett.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 29, 2018 at 10:13 PM
Subject: [Internet Policy] TBL's new gig
To: ISOC Internet Policy <internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org>

Just today, Tim Berners-Lee has announced a new venture he’s formed to control access to user data on the web. He’s taking a sabbatical from MIT and stepping back from the W3C to focus on a new business called “inrupt” based on the “Solid” open source project. The announcement come in a Medium post titled "One Small Step for the Web…" 

Here’s how it begins: 

"I’ve always believed the web is for everyone. That’s why I and others fight fiercely to protect it. The changes we’ve managed to bring have created a better and more connected world. But for all the good we’ve achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas.
Today, I believe we’ve reached a critical tipping point, and that powerful change for the better is possible — and necessary.

"This is why I have, over recent years, been working with a few people at MIT and elsewhere to develop Solid, an open-source project to restore the power and agency of individuals on the web.

"Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we’ve all discovered, this hasn’t been in our best interests. Solid is how we evolve the web in order to restore balance — by giving every one of us complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way.

"Solid is a platform, built using the existing web. It gives every user a choice about where data is stored, which specific people and groups can access select elements, and which apps you use. It allows you, your family and colleagues, to link and share data with anyone. It allows people to look at the same data with different apps at the same time.”