Two initiatives to create a extra open net, the place customers are in charge of their very own digital identities and information, could also be coming collectively. At SXSW 2025, entrepreneur Frank McCourt, whose Project Liberty is creating open web infrastructure (and is throwing its hat within the ring as a possible purchaser for TikTok), introduced that his group has been in discussions with web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee about an integration with Solid, his open supply venture aimed toward giving folks management over their very own information.
In a panel at SXSW, McCourt shared that his staff had “talked to Tim Berners-Lee about Strong,” including that “Mission Liberty is suitable with Strong.”
Although he didn’t announce an official partnership, McCourt steered that discussions had been underway on a future collaboration.
“We’re debating, or speaking, proper now about the right way to incorporate that — him and Strong, his Strong Pods — into the venture,” McCourt teased.
Berners-Lee, often known as the father of the World Wide Web, introduced in 2018 he had been working with a small staff on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how to develop Solid. He had additionally tapped British engineer John Bruce to go up Inrupt, a startup constructed on prime of the open supply venture.
Inrupt has gone on to launch a privateness platform aimed toward enterprises, the place folks management their information in on-line storage entities known as Private On-line Information Shops, or Pods for brief.
With comparable missions in thoughts, Berners-Lee has been supportive of Mission Liberty’s efforts. He even backed its TikTok bid, saying: “This venture has my help. The net I invented was to supply energy and worth to people, which they don’t have in the mean time.”
Nevertheless, there has not been a proper collaboration between Strong and Inrupt and Mission Liberty, the latter of which is targeted on the event of Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP).
That protocol immediately is being adopted by a handful of apps and different initiatives, together with MeWe; Soar.com (based by Ancestry.com’s Paul Allen to construct apps by way of a studio mannequin); and the permissionless blockchain Frequency (developed by Project Liberty Labs).
Mission Liberty additionally recently announced a partnership with Free Our Feeds, an effort focused on protecting the AT Protocol, which powers Bluesky’s social community.
