Creating an Inclusive Web

I feel like most people aren’t experiencing the Web way it was meant to be experienced

I’m Ethan Surman. I am 13, I live in Toronto, Ontario, and I am a middle school student. I use the Internet everyday and so does everyone around me in my life — but I feel like most of the people around me aren’t experiencing the Web the way it was meant to be experienced.

The Web should be open. The Web should be a place where you can learn, create, share, and explore, without many guided limits. But here’s the problem: although the Internet is still always open, it doesn’t seem that way to most people, because most of the resources on the Internet have been monopolized.

If I were to ask someone who I go to school with what they use the Internet for, I would bet they could cite no more than five to 10 apps or sites that they use. Things like video, music, and picture sharing, resources that everyone uses on the Internet, have been dominated by large companies, taking away the open exploration. Whether or not people are sharing or consuming, they are only getting it from one source.

For example: if Iwanted to share music that i made, and I wanted to use a feature that was only on Bandcamp, I couldn’t post it there, without knowing that it wouldn’t be heard by anyone, unless i post it to YouTube, or Facebook.

The monopoly on digital resources is a true block because, though it may seem convenient to have everything in one place, it takes away from the open web. It takes away from being able to do what you want to do, on the internet. These large companies think they can own the internet, but truthfully we own the internet. The Web was built up by the people, for the people, and it was made to be open. So that is what we need to to do, make the open web, the common web.

You can hear us talk about this Saturday evening, at 5:30, on the mainstage at MozFest 2k15.