World Wide Web recently announced that it is shutting down operations. Founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 2009, the man who’s widely credited for creating a more accessible, affordable, and secure internet for everyone. The company shared an open letter announcing it is
“winding down” and “closing [its] virtual doors” after 15 years of working to make the web more accessible and safe.
“In the past 15 years the Web Foundation has been a standard bearer for a Web that is safe, trusted and empowering for all,” the letter said. It added “The landscape has fundamentally shifted with access to the Web rising dramatically – nearly 70% of the world are now online from just over 20% in 2009.”
Here’s the full text of the letter
The Web Foundation was born in 2009 as a team effort with funders, colleagues and a passionate group of supporters who believed that the Web was getting stronger and needed to be more widely distributed. Just over 20% of the world had access to the Web back then. We were unique at that time, when there were no other significant organisations supporting the social side of the Web increasing access and affordability.
In the past 15 years the Web Foundation has been a standard bearer for a Web that is safe, trusted and empowering for all. In that time, WF has convened as an independent voice on key topical issues, led groundbreaking research, influenced significant global policy, launched collectives and created innovative tools for the field.
This work has furthered the agenda for a safe, trusted and open web and helped bolster the wider movement of passionate supporters while contributing to increased access and a better experience online for hundreds of millions of people. We are incredibly proud of the organisation’s impact and thank our supporters that have enabled us to move the needle in a big way to address the issues of access and affordability over the past many
years.
The landscape has fundamentally shifted with access to the Web rising dramatically – nearly 70% of the world are now online from just over 20% in 2009. There are many excellent organisations now defending the Web’s principles and users’ rights online. The threats to the Web have increased too, social media’s dominant business model has brought about the commoditisation of users data and a concentration of power contrary to Tim’s
original vision, impacting all aspects of society from our democracy to our individual wellbeing.
We, along with the Web Foundation board have been asking ourselves where we can have the most impact in the future. 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 decentralised systems. The board of the Web Foundation has therefore made the decision to wind down the Web Foundation, closing our virtual doors at the end of September and enabling Tim to focus on his vision for Solid.
We have been reflecting back fondly on the past 15 years and the impact Web Foundation has had globally. We pay tribute to the amazing partnerships we’ve formed with colleagues, other NGO’s, governments, private funders and advocates in the space. We also shine a light on the dedication and energy given by our staff and partners to help us realise the vision we have for the Web. Thank you to all of those who have worked alongside us to fight for the Web We Want.
Tim & Rosemary
