Fighting for (web) Freedom!

Funnily enough, I was reading the Metro this morning on my way to work and I came across a very interesting article.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the web, has gone on record saying that Facebook, other social networking sites and large corporations are threatening the freedom of the internet.

Berners-Lee said ‘the threat to internet freedom comes from enclosing data in corporate-governed online spaces – such as ‘apps’. 

He used iTunes as an example, ‘You are no longer on the web. The iTunes world is centralised, walled off. You are trapped in a single store, rather than being on the open marketplace.’

Since Facebook announced the launch of its Facebook messaging last week, I have been thinking with the same school of thought.

And now Facebook has also announced its merger with Myspace, to include the music scene, and then Facebook Places is old news.

(Then half way through writing this article, a quick Twitter check, and I see Berners is trending!)

So we are all aware of what is happening, but nothing is being done about it.

Controlling the social networking is not enough, Facebook don’t even want you to leave the site to check your Gmail!  As if we don’t spend enough time on Facebook.

All of the dominant players in this space are expanding their business models to offer a one-stop internet experience, exactly like Berners-Lee says of iTunes, aiming to be a jack of all trades.

We were given absolute freedom with the original release of the web, and Berners gave it away, royalty-free, keeping in line with the ideology behind it.

Now we are in real danger of losing it.

Photo (cc) The unnamed.