The creator of the World Wide Web is now on a mission to save it.

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the person who made it possible to read this article online, first came up with the concept of the Web in 1989.

But 33 years later, he believes that technology platforms “control the world and manipulate people by providing them with information.”

Speaking to Euronews Next at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon earlier this month, Berners-Lee said that “some people thought that tech people would save the world then. Now, we’re in a situation where there are a lot of things wrong with the Web.”

His solution is “a midway fix to get it back”, which he calls Web3.0.

This is not the same as Web3, the name many in the tech world have been agitating as the next iteration of the Internet.

But before jumping into its future and its dangers, it is important to know its origins and development.

How the World Wide Web began

Berners-Lee was born in 1955 in London and studied physics at Oxford University.

In the 1980s he began working as a consultant at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where he devised the original WEB prototype, which he called “Enquire Within Upon Everything”. His goal was to allow scientists to share data between systems.

But the Internet is not the same as the Web. The Internet already existed in the 1970s, but no one really knew it was there.

Electrical engineers Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf first developed Internet Protocol (IP), which allowed computers to share bits of information. Simply put, he created a process by which computers could communicate with each other. This is the physical part to which the Web can then be connected.

Then Berners-Lee came along and wrote his proposal to develop a single distributed information system to meet the demand for automated information exchange between scientists at universities and institutes around the world.

In 1990, he wrote a second proposal for the Web, which outlined the terms of a “hypertext project” called “WorldWideWeb” that allowed browsers to view “hypertext documents.”

By the end of the year, his idea was up and running, and he developed the code for his web server on a computer.

To prevent it from being turned off accidentally, the computer was labeled, handwritten in red ink, reading: “This machine is a server. Don’t turn it off!”

How the internet took off

In 1993, CERN placed the software for the World Wide Web in the public domain.

Then we saw the rise of the first stage of the Internet, Web1.0. Despite being available to everyone, it was a read-only type of Web, and only the few who knew the ins and outs of coding could publish anything.

This led to the development of Web 2.0, which now allows us to interact more with the Web and become creators so we can post what we like on big platforms like Google, Facebook, etc.

But it doesn’t come for free. In return, many of these companies may take our data which can be used for targeted advertising.

A safest solution

Berners-Lee’s idea for a new Web was born while he was working in his lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was trying to find a new way to break down the Internet and protect our data.

Their solution to the dysfunctions of Web2.0 is the third layer of protocols, which gives a person the ability to log into something with their own personal ID.

He came up with a new project called Solid, and then a new company called Inrupt to help launch Solid.

The Berners-Lee platform can be accessed from your browser. But it’s not an app; he calls it a “Pod”, where you can store your private data and access it very easily.

In simpler terms, it can be thought of as your key or a digital ID that is kept secure.

He said that this is his vision for Web3.0, stressing that it is not Web3 that uses the Ethereum blockchain system and promises to be decentralized.

The problem with Web3 is that data, such as health records, can be easily traced; since it is public, making it secure is expensive. Speed ​​is another issue and there are questions about whether it can be fully decentralized.

Many cryptocurrency and metaverse companies use the word Web3 as the future of the internet. But Inrupt disagrees.

“We’re talking about Web 3.0, which is the real thing…not marketing hijacking, if you will,” said John Bruce, Inrupt’s chief executive and co-founder, who joined Berners-Lee about five years ago.

“Tim explained to me over dinner one night that the Web, as it is being implemented, is not the Web we envision. But we could take it somewhere as long as we played it the right way,” he said.

“We have worked a lot with the open source community and so on. But we have completed the technological puzzle picture of what the Web should need.”

The technology is already available and Berners-Lee said Inrupt is talking to governments, including those in Europe, without disclosing exactly which countries.

It is now available?

But it is already being implemented in Flanders, the Flemish-speaking region of northern Belgium. Berners-Lee said that social services will be delivered through the Pods, and by the end of the year, its 6.5 million citizens will be able to use this technology.

Other users include the insurance industry, as well as many other types of businesses.

But the technology claims to be accessible to everyone and every country, and it can also help save lives.

Inrupt has worked with NGOs to help refugees by allowing them to share their Pod. They can then share their medical details, the clothing and tents they have been given, and register with the NGO, which saves time.

Berners-Lee said other countries have asked for their help for victims of domestic violence and Inrupt has provided capsules to those affected.

“I’ve heard that when someone goes to the police, it’s usually after the 37th time they’ve been hurt,” he said.

“And therefore, it is a feeling that if [a Pod] it’s given to a person, they can track what’s going on completely privately and if they need to go to the police, they have a trail.”

Pods can help everyone in society keep their data safe online.

Society seems to be ready for it, too, with many of us becoming more protective of our data since the revelations about Russian hackers meddling in the 2016 US election, widespread misinformation, and FacebookCambridge Analytica scandal.

Everyone wins, even Big Tech

But how would the big platforms react to losing access to our data that they sell to companies and advertisers for profit?

According to Bruce, everyone wins, since citizens would control the amount of data they provide and companies would better understand user preferences.

Inrupt’s task now is to continue to speak to governments and companies so that more Pods are used around the world.

But even if it’s used everywhere, there’s a lot more to be done to make the Web a safe space.

“The Web has always been accessible and it is very important that it have a kind of internationalization. So making sure it works in many languages ​​and for people with disabilities could be very important with strong apps. [Pods],” he said.

He also fears what shape the metaverse will take.

“There will be problems. If you’re worried about being a feminist blogger on Twitter, what’s it like in the world of virtual reality?” Berners-Lee said.

“Obviously there will be a lot of thinking to do about how to build systems for places that are safe,” he said, showing that the work to make the Web a more democratic and safe space is far from over.