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GENEVA and BOSTON, MA – November 16, 2009 – World Wide Web Foundation (Web Foundation), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the Web to empower people, announced yesterday the launch of global operations including the existence of its first projects. Speaking at the 2009 Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a Web Foundation board member, unveiled the organization’s new partnerships with VU University Amsterdam (VU) in the Netherlands and CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) based in Brazil.

Internet Governance Forum, Egypt, 15 November 2009. Photo by Daniel Dardailler.

Web Foundation is delighted to announce a partnership with the VU to expedite “re-greening” initiatives throughout the African continent. This new program, Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA), will train and assist local developers to implement and deploy mobile Web- and voice-based platforms to improve communication between agricultural specialists and farmers in Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries.

“The W4RA facilitates the sharing of successful agricultural techniques developed by farmers for others to raise crops in the arid conditions of the Sahel, where climate change and drought threaten the livelihood of entire communities,” explained Steve Bratt, Chief Executive Officer of Web Foundation. “This project meets one of Web Foundation’s main objectives: to assist people to leverage the Web as a medium for sharing life-critical content and dialog, and thus using the Web as an agent of social and economic progress.”

In addition, Web Foundation proudly announces a project with CDI, an international, social enterprise dedicated to teaching disadvantaged youth how to use information technologies.

While roughly 25 percent of the world population uses the Web today, more than 70 percent of people have access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying Web content. The gap in Web usage is partly attributable to the lack of accessible or relatable content, and the lack of available training on how to use the Web to its full potential. Web Foundation and CDI will develop training programs that empower young people to create Web sites and applications. In an effort to improve the accessibility of this content, the system will be mobile ready and integrate the use of voice as an interface. Five pilot training programs will be established in inner-city community centers in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

“We are enthusiastic about this partnership because we believe the combined expertise of CDI and Web Foundation has the potential to create powerful innovation in the use of mobile, voice and graphical technologies,” said Rodrigo Baggio, Founder and Executive Director, CDI. “By empowering impoverished communities to create and share relevant content through mobile phones and other devices, we will expand our work of transforming lives and communities.”

The projects with VU and CDI constitute the launch of global operations for the Web Foundation. The organization’s unique mission is to advance the Web as a medium for empowering people seeking to effect positive change in their lives and communities. Through its collaboration with the Web Science Trust and the World Wide Web Consortium, Web Foundation’s programs will also seek to understand the Web’s complexities, explore new Web technologies and ensure that the Web works to serve all people around the world.

Web Foundation is an international not-for-profit organization. In the United States it is a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit. Please visit www.webfoundation.org/programs for more information about Web Foundation and its new programs.

About World Wide Web Foundation

World Wide Web Foundation develops transformative programs to advance the Web as a medium that empowers people to bring about positive change. Web Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators, academia, government, NGOs, experts, developers and end users to tackle challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale. By funding education, outreach, research and the next generation of Web technologies, Web Foundation strives to enable all people to share knowledge, access services, conduct commerce, participate in good governance and communicate in creative ways. For more information, please visit www.webfoundation.org.

Media inquiries should be directed to:

World Wide Web Foundation: Vera Newhouse, Tel: +1 212 819 4878, Email: press@webfoundation.org

CDI: Elis Monteiro, Tel: +55 21 3235 9463, Email: elis.monteiro@cdi.org.br

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Governance: WF is incorporated in Switzerland (global HQ) and the US (501(c)(3)). The founding Boards of both organizations are super and bylaws are in place.

Photo by Shivali Mehta

Space: We are discussing sharing space in Geneva with another organization there. In Boston, we have settled into a few offices on the 6th floor of a 150 year old building, just blocks from public transit and the waterfront.

Staff: Initial staffing was completed (for the time being) with the arrival of Shivali Mehta, our new accounting and finance associate.

Contractors: We have a superb group of them, including: George Sadowsky (programs), Edelman (public and press relations), Development Guild/DDI (fund-raising), Say Yeah and Sum (new Web site), WithYou (concepts and graphics), WilmerHale and Lenz & Staehelin (legal), Deloitte (tax/audit) and Paychex (HR). W3C is hosting our Web site, email and collaboration systems.

Volunteers. Thanks to all of you who have offered to help. We are getting organized to take you up on your offers, with Ben Thompson volunteering to help coordinate those who want to assist with communications (blogging and following media), graphics, administration, systems, prototyping, program execution, and research to support fund raising and program planning.

Messaging. We’re still working on it, but we now have a 2-page executive summary that is getting close to articulating the vision and objectives for the Web Foundation.

New Web Site. The Alpha version looks cool. The final project should be a welcome replacement for our current, temporary site in about a month. The new webfoundation.org will be dynamic, convey stories, engage people through our site and other social media, and provide opportunities to get involved. Very key: I expect that the new site will have news of WF’s first projects.

The Web Foundation is a work in progress. With completion of our Web site and of plans for our first projects, I expect we can finally launch the Foundation and get to the real, transformative aspect of our work: advancing the Web and empowering people. We hope you will engage in this work in a variety of ways.

In the last quarter of 2008, we made substantial progress on setting-up the “business” side of the Web Foundation (eg, bylaws, budgeting, boards, branding, tax-exempt applications, processes, legal services, financial services, etc). Though this work may not be interesting to most of you, it will prove important to creating a solid and flexible framework for tackling the ambitious challenges that we will undertake.

With the help of the Monitor Group, we developed the strategy for the Foundation’s future efforts. Our emphasis will be on advancing the Web to empower people and benefit humanity. We are developing plans for projects that aim to have a real impact in the world, including a blueprint for providing overall Web community focus and leadership, and for supporting Web science and standards. We also plan to launch a targeted initiative to accelerate the usability and usefulness of the Web on simple mobile phones in the hands of people who need life-critical services or who have services to provide. More on the strategy and plans in later postings.

How are we going to fund all of this work? Our 2009 began with a deposit of the first installment of the $5-million / 5-year grant from the John S and James L Knight Foundation. This generous grant is seeding the launch of the Web Foundation. As such the Knight investment is funding most operational (non-program) costs for the foreseeable future, and providing a platform upon which to raise tens of millions of dollars from foundations, corporations, and people like you and me, so that we can achieve results.

With the Knight funding in the bank and working for us, you will see an acceleration of activity on this site and elsewhere in the coming months. At the same time, I hope to see an acceleration of your participation in our activity. A completely new Web site (still at webfoundation.org) will be the focal point for building the Web Foundation community. The new site will provide a place where you — and others who care about the Web and how it can benefit humanity — will exchange ideas, identify challenges and opportunities, volunteer to work, and help to raise funds needed to fuel success.

I’m excited about the year ahead. Watch this space. And prepare to work with us here and around the globe.

Tonight, 14 September 2008, I joined Tim Berners-Lee in Washington, DC, USA at the incredible Newseum for his announcement of the formation of the new World Wide Web Foundation. Tim’s speech is online, as well as video and photos and a press release.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped get us to this first step:

• Alberto Ibargüen and the Knight Foundation for their very generous seed grant.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Web Science Research Initiative, and the joint task force behind this project: Tim, Stéphane Boyera, Daniel Dardailler, Craig Heintzman, Rosemary Leith, Mauro Nunez and Thomas Roessler.
• Ian Jacobs, Karl Dubost, Ted Guild and many others from the W3C systems and communications teams for building this Web site.

The promise of the Foundation is to accelerate the Web’s advancement and growth around the planet. It is pretty exciting to be a part of it. We are still in the planning phase, and I expect to use this blog to share more information as we progress towards a full launch in early 2009. All those interested in becoming founding donors for this initiative are welcome to contact me at donations at webfoundation dot org.

Beyond financial contributions, what about contributions of intellectual capital? It would be great to hear your ideas on how the community that is developing the Web used now by about 1/5th of the inhabitants of the planet could contribute their time and skills to bring the benefits of the Web to the other 4/5ths.

Have a look around the new site. If you have any questions or ideas, send me email at contact at webfoundation dot org.