W3 Foundation

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as most people know, is credited with the invention of the World Wide Web as we know it. As a way of moving forward with the Internet he has launched a foundation that aims to promote a web that is free and open, and to expand the Web's capabilities and robustness. The World Wide Web Foundation has already had $5 million put into it by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The aim is to launch this new organisation next year so that it can focus on three areas:

1. Web Science and Research
2. Web Technology and Practice
3. Web for Society

As an outcome, the group hopes to be able to anticipate and ensure the web's future through the study of how it currently works, and to research the issues it currently has that impacts the users. It is hoped that they can make the web more stable and secure, and bring this information to the masses so that people can be trained to think this way through University and College courses on Web Science.

With it being headed by Tim Berners-Lee, and the W3C CEO Steve Bratt, how can it fail? I hope it manages to succeed in improving the web as although it is usable to the majority at the minute it's like a piece of artwork - there are always ways it can be improved and I think the only way this is going to happen is if people stop and think about it, they need to be innovative, yet also mindful of how users actually want to use the 'net and what they use it for.