The father of Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is preparing to re-make cyberspace once again.
The British computer scientist who was knighted for inventing the internet navigation system known as the World Wide Web, is now establishing a startup called Inrupt. With this new move he aims to rectify some of the problems that has crippled the so-called open web in an age of huge, closed platforms such as Facebook.
Inrupt was developed by banking on an open-source software project called Solid. According to Lee, Inrupt promises a web where people can use a single sign-on for any service and personal data is stored in “pods,” or personal online data stores, controlled by the user.
“People are fed up with the lack of controls, the silos,” said Berners-Lee, co-founder and chief technology officer of Inrupt said.
This new, updated web, aims to leave the user in control and enables person-to-person sharing and collaboration that has helped social media grow.
John Bruce, a veteran technology executive who is CEO of Inrupt, said the company had signed up Britain’s National Health Service, the BBC and the government of Flanders in Belgium as pilot customers, and hopes to announce many more by April.
Inrupt’s investors include Hearst Ventures, Octopus Ventures and Akamai, an internet content delivery firm.
A key focus for Inrupt is to get software developers to write programs for the platform. Inrupt, like the original web, is at its core mostly a set of protocols for how machines talk to one another, which means specific applications bring it to life.
“The use cases are so broad, it’s like a do-over for the web,” Berners-Lee said.
