Tim Berners-Lee: 'Stop web's downward plunge to dysfunctional future'
Tim's letter:
  https://webfoundation.org/2019/03/web-birthday-30/I actually thought it was pretty carefully worded and not super alarmist (despite the BBC headline).I personally think it is worse than he presents it. Perhaps it is just nostalgia, but today's web / internet seems to have given up on open standards and cooperation. Instead most of the money and effort is going into figuring out how to capture people in a walled garden such as Facebook etc.. so you can mine their data and advertise to them.For all its downsides, Bitcoin is the last exciting open standard I can remember that has done well and maybe has a future.We seem to have failed as a community to solve chat with an open standard (that has broken out enough to win), which is a serious shame. That's a hugely important medium today and we have essentially handed that to WhatsApp / Facebook / whoever. Imagine if we had done the same with email or the web itself.I wonder if it is just a cultural difference somehow. The Stalman's of the world seem farther and farther apart, or perhaps just the internet has become so monetized that the best talent just can't refuse the $$$s from a FANG job that focuses on crushing the competition and owning everything.I don't know, but it makes me sad.