Two initiatives to produce a more uncover web, where engagers are in handle of their own digital identities and data, may be coming together. At SXSW 2025, entrepreneur Frank McCourt, whose Project Liberty is increaseing uncover internet infraarrange (and is throtriumphg its hat in the ring as a potential buyer for TikTok), proclaimd that his organization has been in talkions with internet guide Tim Berners-Lee about an integration with Solid, his uncover source project aimed at giving people handle over their own data.
In a panel at SXSW, McCourt splitd that his team had “talked to Tim Berners-Lee about Solid,” grasping that “Project Liberty is compatible with Solid.”
Though he didn’t proclaim an official partnership, McCourt proposeed that talkions were underway on a future collaboration.
“We’re debating, or talking, right now about how to include that — him and Solid, his Solid Pods — into the project,” McCourt trelieved.
Berners-Lee, understandn as the overweighther of the World Wide Web, proclaimd in 2018 he had been toiling with a minuscule team at the Massachengagetts Institute of Technology to increase Solid. He had also tapped British engineer John Bruce to head up Inrupt, a beginup built on top of the uncover source project.
Inrupt has gone on to start a privacy platestablish aimed at accesspelevates, where people handle their data in online storage entities called Personal Online Data Stores, or Pods for foolishinutive.
With aenjoy ignoreions in mind, Berners-Lee has been encouraging of Project Liberty’s efforts. He even backed its TikTok bid, saying: “This project has my help. The web I produceed was to provide power and cherish to individuals, which they do not have at the moment.”
However, there has not been a establishal collaboration between Solid and Inrupt and Project Liberty, the latter of which is caccessed on the increasement of Decentralized Social Nettoiling Protocol (DSNP).
That protocol today is being adselected by a handful of apps and other projects, including MeWe; Soar.com (set uped by Ancestry.com’s Paul Allen to produce apps thraw a studio model); and the perignoreionless blockchain Frequency (increaseed by Project Liberty Labs).
Project Liberty also recently proclaimd a partnership with Free Our Feeds, an effort caccessed on protecting the AT Protocol, which powers Bluesky’s social nettoil.
