Tim Berners Lee Launches World Wide Web Foundation - Will it Be Effective?
Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, announced this weekend the formation of a new organization dedicated to studying how the web works and expanding access to the billions of people who can't get online today. The World Wide Web Foundation kicked off with $5 million in support from media funders the Knight Foundation.
Can yet another organization really make a difference? Some observers seem to be suffering from Organization Fatigue, but we're interested to see what Berners Lee can do. A group dedicated to deep study of the web and the obstacles to its growth sounds like a great idea to us. Not everyone agrees.
What's Being Planned
The Foundation launched with a three part plan, including:
- Web Science and Research
- Web Technology and Practice
- Web for Society
Studying the web "as an interconnected complex system (that combines disciplines of science, biomedical science, social science, and computer science, for example)" and creating curriculum for other Web Scientists to be trained with around the world.
Advancing standards.
"To learn from people in socially or economically deprived communities how the Web can better serve them." (Nice that it's phrased this way.) Creating programs to extend access around the world.
Concerns
We are a little concerned about a conversation Berners Lee had with the BBC prior to unveiling the Foundation where he argued that there needs to be some way to brand trustworthy websites as trustworthy. That strikes us as either silly or frightening, possibly both.
Web standards guru and blogger Molly Holzschlag sums up what is probably a common feeling of ambivalence about the new Foundation.
I would love to feel optimistic about this, but at this point I've really decided that creating more groups is just adding layers of problems on top of what we're already doing.On the other hand, if this empowers greater outreach, education and fosters real influence in returning to the core ideals of an interoperable Web for all, then I'm all for it.
Eran Hammer-Lahav, Open Web Evangelist at Yahoo! and party to the founding of another group, the Open Web Foundation, has sharper words for Berners Lee's group.
Seems odd to ask for money, and a lot of
it, with so little detail as to what this organization is about?...We've been asked many times why a new org, and I think it is fair to ask it back. Seems to me that most of this should/could be done within the W3C. If the W3C is no longer able to promote its own mission, it raises the question: should the same leadership be trusted to run a new effort that seems to try and fix what their first effort failed to accomplish?
We are sympathetic to both opinions here. The problems being engaged with are thorny enough that we applaud anyone for trying tackle them - and the inventor of the web certainly brings credentials to the effort. Also, it's not our $5 million so we're not going to lose too much sleep even if the effort goes no where.
What do you think? Does the World Wide Web Foundation website give you hope that the organization will be effective? If these topics are of interest to you, see also the Digital Divide Network.
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I know there are many pressing issues these days, but opening up the Internet as a source for reasearch, discovery and enjoyment for many people who may not get to see it does make a lot of sense to me. There are just too many resources for health, money, government etc that need to be in everyone's hands in the 21st century for this to be made a low priority. Not to mention that literacy rates need to drop, and anything that can encourage kids to read news and commentary about intersting subjects in a plus.
Yes, the internet has it's dark dead ends and nasty allyways we don't want kids going into, but I'm sure that's part of what they are doing today -- helping people access the information that they want, and avoiding the information that they don't.
TBL has a tendency to suck all the oxygen out of any project he's involved in.
The Foundation, appropriately summarized as "great if it works", will no doubt keep some of the smarter minds out of it for his presence within / atop / around it.
$5 millions are good prices :S
Speaking as a former W3C employee, I think this makes perfect sense.
The Foundation will share a lot with the W3C, it's true. But the W3C has struggled to work on more idealistic portions of its mission, while also keeping the trains running on time. The W3C Members (one of whom I now work for) aren't generally too interested in paying up for the research work (often because the research could threaten the products they already make). But the money for that research is still there, and TimBL is a great rainmaker. This is a great way to split the politics inherent in the consortium from the high-minded stuff which we also desperately need.
Matt, that's a great comment, thanks for leaving it. We really appreciate such informed contributions to the discussion here.
@ Matt,
Even after reading your comments, I am still confusing how the new W3F may be operated better than the existing W3C in order to foster Web Science research.
Actually, this is what really puzzled me. Under nearly the identical leadership, will the problems (if any) be solved just by assigning another title to the organization?
Yihong
I think people just need to accept the fact that the Web is chaotic and messy. Let's stop wasting millions on efforts at top down organization of things like trustworthiness verification systems. The Web is one place where the free market, of dollars and ideas, actually manages takes care of itself.
@Yihong
I think you first have to realize what the W3C is. At its core, it's 70 web geeks. They draw a paycheck from the 400 or so member organizations. Those Members pay their $7k-$70k/yr for them to do the leg work in promulgating standards. Now, with all the oversight and all the committees and other layers in place to make sure those Members get their money's worth, that's a lot of minute-taking and decision-tracking and lots of travel and, let's be honest, a mountain of bullshit that you have to work your way through, before you get to the actual research you wanted to do in the first place.
Some groups (namely the Semantic Web Activity and the Web Accessibility Initiative) have managed to cut side deals to ensure that money flows to the projects they oversee that are not in lockstep with the Members' wishes. So if a W3F materializes, I'd say they'd be the first to move their research components under that umbrella, and both the Foundation and the Consortium would be happier that way.
I don't think there's a management problem, per se. Or, more accurately, I don't think the problem is with TimBL and Steve Bratt. I think they have always had the best interests of the web at heart. They've also gone to great lengths to push royalty-free standards, at times even in the face of their own membership, and that's a benefit to the commons that shouldn't be underestimated.
If I had $20M to drop on web-centric philanthropy, I would much sooner put it in the hands of those two to parcel out among those researchers they respect, than to an organization that is still driven by those 400 Members, and the various factions and agendas that they represent. To me, it'd be a no-brainer. And I'm positive that I'm not alone.
@ Matt,
Thank you very much for the information. I think this time I understand much better what's going on. Sure, as you said, it seems more clearer to me now that this new W3F might be a significant valuable movement, though we may still wait to see the consequence following.
Moreover, the same as you, I have never questioned the vision and leadership TimBL has brought for the evolution of World Wide Web. Many good things could not have happened without his insight. Though indeed I have a few slight arguments on the current Semantic Web approach, you know, indeed every opinion has its counterpart. And it is the healthy debates pushing us forward. I agree to you that it is a good thing that the new Web Science research is continuously supervised by visionary legends such as TimBL.
Let's make a good wish for this new W3F organization then!
Yihong
Thank you very much for the information about World Wide Web Foundation. I appreciate all the work from Tim Berners-Lee and I really think it will be a good help for a better Web in the future. The web is already very good and it is now my main forum for communication and for share information. Internet been so much better from the time when World Wide Web comes out and was developed at CERN.