Tim Berners-Lee after creating the internet has become one of the fiercest critics of the same internet he created. As the father and founder of the web he has loudly criticize the current state of the internet and how it is dominated by a small number of powerful companies.He has also criticized how users have little control over their online data.
Just recently, Tim Berners-Lee has rolled out a solution to tackle the unending issues of access, privacy and openness of the web in what he tagged Contract for the Web.
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The Contract for the Web outlined nine key factors for a better internet, including promoting affordable internet access for everyone, valuing people’s privacy and data rights, preventing governments to cut off internet access and, most ambitiously — given the current state of political rhetoric, building “strong communities that respect civil discourse and human dignity.”
The Contract for the Web’s website invites governments, companies and citizens to endorse the principles, in order to “make sure our online world is safe, empowering and genuinely for everyone.”
The Tim Berners-Lee internet solution took more than a year to draft, with the involvement of the governments of France and Germany, then companies like Google and Microsoft and organizations like Wikimedia and the Web Foundation.
The contract has long been supported and endorsed by digital rights organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and tech companies including Facebook and Twitter. Despite having those big names on the internet associating with the project, Amazon is yet to identify with the principles.
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Any company or government that endorse the contract must be ready to commit to supporting a free and open web, and they must also take actions to address problems with the web or they may be removed as a partner of the contract.
Considering the alarming record of data abuse by companies including Google and Facebook, it’s not quite sure how these principles will be enforced. To get the detail of the project and its laid down principles, please read more by clicking the Contract for the Web website.
