“Let the web be the web,” writes Dave Winer. Its real, specific, far-reaching virtues [imagined in substantial part from the very start by Tim Berners-Lee] — know them, name them, let them continue to unfold for us. Yes, yes, yes.
But actually, Dave Winer said, “We let the web be the web.” Understanding the web, naming its virtues and its promise, is work we have to do together. No Silicon Silomaster or Guru Gazillionaire can be trusted with the task. People ordinarily seem powerless, but people together are the only ones for this important work.
When a project needs to be solved in the realm of shared, evolving, open practices rather than being abandoned to heavy-handed, pattern-dictating operations of someone else’s capital, people together are the ones for the task. When Vaclav Havel wrote about the power of the powerless, he wasn’t kidding.
With good tools and a taste for creativity and freedom, it’s people who put the we in web.