Two initiatives to create a extra open net, the place customers are in charge of their very own digital identities and knowledge, could also be coming collectively. At SXSW 2025, entrepreneur Frank McCourt, whose Mission 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 Strong, his open supply venture geared toward giving folks management over their very own knowledge.
In a panel at SXSW, McCourt shared that his workforce had “talked to Tim Berners-Lee about Strong,” including that “Mission Liberty is appropriate with Strong.”
Although he didn’t announce an official partnership, McCourt prompt that discussions have been underway on a future collaboration.
“We’re debating, or speaking, proper now about the way to incorporate that — him and Strong, his Strong Pods — into the venture,” McCourt teased.
Berners-Lee, often called the daddy of the World Broad Internet, introduced in 2018 he had been working with a small workforce on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise to develop Strong. He had additionally tapped British engineer John Bruce to move up Inrupt, a startup constructed on high of the open supply venture.
Inrupt has gone on to launch a privateness platform geared toward enterprises, the place folks management their knowledge in on-line storage entities referred to 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 assist. The net I invented was to offer energy and worth to people, which they don’t have in the intervening time.”
Nonetheless, there has not been a proper collaboration between Strong and Inrupt and Mission Liberty, the latter of which is concentrated on the event of Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP).
That protocol right now 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 means of a studio mannequin); and the permissionless blockchain Frequency (developed by Mission Liberty Labs).
Mission Liberty additionally not too long ago introduced a partnership with Free Our Feeds, an effort targeted on defending the AT Protocol, which powers Bluesky’s social community.
