Creation of Foundation to Bring the Web to All People

The World Wide web Foundation, created by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web was recently unveiled to the public. It has a vision of the Web as humanity connected by technology with a mission:

• to advance One Web that is free and open,
• to expand the Web's capability and robustness, and
• to extend the Web's benefits to all people on the planet.

Through research, technology development and the application of the Web for the benefit of underserved communities, the foundation seeks to enable all people to share knowledge, access services, conduct commerce, participate in good governance, and communicate in creative ways. The foundation will raise funds beginning with a $5 million seed grant over five years from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"The Web is a tremendous platform for innovation, but we face a number of challenges to making it more useful, in particular to people in underserved communities," said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and co-Director of the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), organizations that have helped put together the World Wide Web Foundation. "Through this new initiative, we hope to develop an international ecosystem that will help shape the future Web. A more inclusive Web will benefit us all."

Existing communities, governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders who see the Web as an instrument of creativity, collaboration, and communication are being brouth together by the World Wide Web Foundation. The Web Foundation will pursue its objectives to improve the Web by funding projects around the world in three connected programs related to research, technology, and social development.

Underserved populations will be the main focus. The Web Foundation will deal with issues of access to  relevant, usable, and useful content, and will identify benefits of the Web for these communities. The foundation will do so with the support of efforts to develop better health care, nutrition, education, and emergency relief.

"The free flow of information is of paramount importance to communities in a democracy and maintaining the World Wide Web free is critical for the future of that free flow," said Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO. "Knight Foundation's interests and those of the World Wide Web Foundation perfectly intersect and we are delighted to be their seed donor."

The World Wide Web Foundation is in the initial planning phase.

"I would like to invite those who share this vision for the Web to become founding donors," said Steve Bratt, CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation. "With their support, we plan to launch the foundation in early 2009 with an announcement of the first concrete steps toward fulfilling its mission."