Web B

The problem

The web was supposed to be different.

It was built as a shared space: open, distributed, accessible to all. Somewhere knowledge could circulate freely, where anyone could publish, connect, and create.

That space has been captured by a handful of dominant actors. Platform monopolies shape communication. Surveillance-based business models turn attention into revenue. A handful of cloud providers control the infrastructure everyone depends on. They collect data, set the rules, and answer to no one.

This is not an accident. The current web has been reshaped around extraction, control, and dependency. It works exactly as intended, just not for us.

Web B is not a new version of the web. It is a serious attempt to take it back.

Seven commitments

Our principles

1. 1

   The web as a commons

   The web is a shared resource, built on decades of collective work and conceived from the start as an open system. Its protocols, code, and physical infrastructure must be collectively maintained and protected from privatisation. No actor should be able to enclose what belongs to all: not a platform, not a cloud provider, not even a well-intentioned government.

2. 2

   Federation over centralisation

   No single platform should dominate communication or access. Web B is built on interconnected nodes: communities, organisations, individuals. Each is autonomous. Together they cooperate. Decentralisation, as Berners-Lee argued from the start, is what keeps any system from collapsing into a single point of control.

3. 3

   Protocols, not platforms

   The foundations of the web must be open standards, not proprietary ecosystems. Anyone can build on them. Open protocols reduce lock-in and make exit possible. This is not a technical preference but a political one: open protocols distribute power, and closed platforms concentrate it. The Contract for the Web exists precisely because that distinction needs defending.

4. 4

   Data belongs to people, and to communities

   Personal data is not a commodity. People must be able to control what is collected about them, how it is used, and who can access it. But data is also collective. Communities should be able to govern shared data as a commons, through stewardship models that go beyond individual consent.

5. 5

   Subsidiarity by design (decisions made at the most local level possible)

   Decisions should be made as close as possible to those affected. Local communities govern their digital spaces. Coordination happens only when necessary. This is what Elinor Ostrom showed through decades of fieldwork: communities can govern shared resources effectively without central control, provided the rules emerge from those who live by them.

6. 6

   Transparency and accountability

   Governance must be explicit and enforceable. Communities set their own moderation rules. Federated nodes coordinate through open, negotiated agreements. Algorithms and policies are visible and contestable. Trust comes from openness, not promises.

7. 7

   Resilience over scale

   Scale for its own sake is not the point. Web B favours smaller, distributed systems over monolithic platforms, local hosting over dependence on single providers, infrastructure sized for communities rather than for markets. This is not a new idea: Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher's argument for human-scale systems, made it half a century ago.

What must change

The shifts

• Users → Participants

  People are not reduced to consumers or products, but have real agency over how they use, shape, and leave digital spaces.

• Platforms → Protocols

  Services are built on open standards anyone can use, not controlled environments that lock people in.

• Extraction → Stewardship

  Data and value are governed responsibly for the benefit of individuals and communities, not extracted for profit.

• Dependency → Autonomy

  Individuals and communities can operate and move freely without reliance on dominant providers.

This is not only a digital issue. The web shapes how democracies function, how knowledge spreads, how attention and culture are produced. What happens here matters far beyond the screen.

Two things need to happen at once: building alternatives, and changing the rules. Federated tools, open protocols, community infrastructure. But also law, public procurement, standards bodies. One without the other is not enough.

A call to action

Start where you are. Build from there.

The tools already exist: federated social networks, community-controlled infrastructure, open-source stacks, data cooperatives, public interest technology. The work is to connect what exists, grow it through federation, and defend it. The barriers are real, switching costs, network effects, lack of resources, but they are not insurmountable when people act together.

• 0

  Explore and create on the open web. Find content that exists outside the platforms: personal sites, community spaces, federated networks. And put something of your own there too. Presence is the first act of reclamation.

• 1

  Use federated tools. Choose services where you are a user, not a product. Paying for something is sometimes the most radical choice you can make. Stop feeding the monopolies you have alternatives to.

• 2

  Form local groups and cooperatives. Pool resources. Build infrastructure your community actually controls.

• 3

  Push institutions, schools, cities, public services, to adopt open standards and stop depending on proprietary platforms.

• 4

  Connect with others doing the same. Local initiatives become stronger when they federate.