Early internet pioneers call for a shift to a decentralized, secure, and permanent Web

IEEE Spectrum : A three-day event last week hosted by the Internet Archive featured a range of early internet luminaries who discussed problems with the way the internet has developed and proposed solutions. The speakers included Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium; Vint Cerf, commonly known as the father of the internet; Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive; and Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They all supported the idea of a decentralized internet, in which people would be freely connected without the limitations imposed by sites such as Facebook, Flickr, and LinkedIn that have created their own mostly closed systems. The internet evangelists also said that a decentralized Web would help prevent the kind of surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden and the restriction of access exemplified by China’s Great Firewall, while also allowing people even greater levels of privacy for their personal information.