What is the Contract for the Web?
Tim Berners-Lee proposes. Who’s gonna shake hands?
On November 5th Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and the first web browser laid out a Contract for the Web. It might be the most meaningful announcement of Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon.
Tim Berners-Lee is currently, among others, a professor of computer science at the University of Oxford and the MIT, a founder, and president of the Open Data Institute and the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation. He’s been actively involved in various efforts aiming at improving the quality of the web for most of his life.
I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries. (Tim Berners-Lee, open letter)
To start with, he made his idea — the Web — available freely, with no patent and no royalties due, so that everyone could benefit from it. He’s helped the UK government make data more open and accessible online. He also started the World Wide Web Foundation to “advance the Web to empower humanity by launching transformative programs that build local capacity to leverage the Web as a medium for positive change” (source).
According to the current prognosis, next year for the first time in history over 50% of the world’s population will be connected to the internet. It’s a great achievement but there’s still a challenge ahead and we, the ones already online, should pose two fundamental questions. Firstly, we need to ask about the future of the Internet in face of cyber threats, misinformation and privacy issues. And secondly, with regards to those who are yet to be connected, we should question our role in making it happen.
What’s the goal of the Contract for the Web?
Primarily the Contract aims at saving the internet from itself. It lays out rules for using the internet ethically and transparently for all participants. It treats the internet as a public good and a basic right for everyone. Berners-Lee is recruiting governments, companies, and citizens to join his cause.
What can be done?
GOVERNMENTS
Each of the parties involved to the table has three fundamental tasks. The governments are to ensure that everyone can connect, no matter who or where they are. The second postulate is to keep all of the internet available. Non-restricted access to information should be granted to all. And finally, the authorities should take responsibility for our privacy protection. It is the basic requirement that needs to be met before everybody can use the internet safely and with confidence.
Governments should be safeguarding the digital privacy and security of their citizens (…). (Craig Fagan, Policy Director at the Web Foundation)
COMPANIES
The companies are first and foremost to make the internet accessible and affordable. It’s an answer to the recent study of the Web Foundation which showed that 2 billion people live in countries where internet is not affordable, which excludes still too many people from participating online and shaping the web. It’s also the businesses’ role to respect the users’ privacy and letting the consumer choose how they want to lead their online life. This also means investing in device security and data encryption. Lastly, it’s up to companies to build technologies that ‘support the best in humanity and challenge the worst’. What does it mean in practice? Shifting focus from financial profits to public good, prioritizing people and working towards social development and common benefits.
CITIZENS
And finally us, the users of the web. We have things to do as well. First of all, we should create relevant content and collaborate. It is Tim Berners-Lee who invented the internet, but it’s the people who use it who shape it. It also means that it’s up to us to build communities based on respect and human dignity. It can come down to things as simple as politeness in online discourse, participation in projects that promote strong moral values or spreading the sense of openness in our communication. Last but not least, it’s the citizens that need to fight for the web, take a stand and speak up. Many important social changes happened only because individuals raised their voices for a cause that mattered to them. We can do the same for the internet to stay neutral and true for everyone.
What’s next?
So far over 50 high-profile parties, including Google and Facebook, signed the contract. The Foundation is still working on a full version of this contract, which is supposed to be ready by May 2019. The above-listed principles, although ambitious and well-intentioned, remain vague. To tackle the daunting challenges that the internet is facing today, we need a well-structured plan — and hopefully, that’s what we’ll get next year. But right now what’s the most vital is raising awareness and asking ourselves: ‘what can I do to make the web a better place?’ — whether we’re policymakers, business owners or just regular users of the internet.
Tim Berners-Lee envisioned long ago that his invention could become a destroyer of worlds when put in the wrong hands. This prophecy is starting to come to life. News like the ones about the Russian hackers influencing the 2016 presidential election in the US or about Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm which worked for Donald Trump’s campaign, gaining data on over 80 million Facebook users become more and more common. But we can still change the tide, make the web a tool for empowerment, reduction of poverty and conflict, improving education and addressing global environmental problems. A place for everyone to communicate, collaborate and improve their lives and the lives of their communities members through access to open information. It will take a lot of joint effort, but all hope is not entirely lost.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +390,426 people.
Subscribe to receive our top stories here.
