The Web We Have to Save

The hyperlink was my currency six years ago. Stemming from the idea of the hypertext, the hyperlink provided a diversity and decentralisation that the real world lacked. The hyperlink represented the open, interconnected spirit of the world wide web — a vision that started with its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. The hyperlink was a way to abandon centralization — all the links, lines and hierarchies — and replace them with something more distributed, a system of nodes and networks.

The concept of the open Web typically is discussed in context of protocols and ISP traffic management, but I think it is important to remember that we should also consider the openness of the sites and services where we create and upload content. Most of the social media services we use today are designed to keep us from navigating away. Content within the network is favored over external links. Furthermore, it may be difficult to impossible to export your data stored within the service. Instead of leaving our data locked into someone else's platform, we should favor systems that support and encourage acces over the open Web.