Doc Searls Weblog

In his latest blog, Dave says, “If I were running WordPress, my first priority would be to get something exciting out that even non-WordPress users would talk about. Then do it again.” He follows with a good suggestion.

I have one too. I’ve told Matt about it, and he was receptive. But it’s not the kind of thing WordPress itself would need to do. Anyone who builds WordPress plugins can do it. There are lots of those.

The WordPress plugin I want will provide a way for sites to agree to MyTerms, and then store agreement decisions.

We also need browser plugins to proffer terms to sites, and store the same decisions.

So this is an appeal for both.

I want to make clear how big MyTerms is to the world, and to me.

For the world, it’s the only way we’ll get personal privacy online.

We’ll won’t get it from corporate privacy policies, which tend to be fig leaves over hard-ons for personal data. We won’t get it from “consent” to cookie “choices.” Those are mostly ignored by the sites that offer them, and are meaningless in any case. (See here, here, here, and here.) Regulations are essential, but getting them right is a very long slog.

MyTerms works because it makes privacy a contract. And contracts are backed by laws that have been with us forever.

With MyTerms, you are the first party—not a mere “user.” The site is the second party. It can agree or not. If it does, you’ve set the privacy terms. If it doesn’t, your browser plugin can record that choice as easily as it can record an agreement.

Far more business can be done based on privacy agreements that you require than is possible with the surveillance-based guesswork fecosystem we call adtech. (For more on those business possibilities, read Nitin Badjatia and Iain Henderson. Especially this piece here.)

I’ve been involved in many important movements in my life: Linux, open source, blogging, open space conferences, free and open photography, and personal AI are six big ones. MyTerms is bigger than all of them.

In my not-humble opinion, MyTerms will launch the third stage of the Internet’s evolution. The first was the Internet itself. The second was the Web. The third will be MyTerms and the constellations of trust-based business ecosystems it will enable.

That’s why I’m dedicating what’s left of my life to it. Yes, I’ll do other stuff, but getting MyTerms moving is the main thing I’m still here for.

MyTerms is an IEEE standard that took nine years to finish (though it’s radically simple). I chaired the working group. You can read about and download a copy of it here.

To start, we need development. There are a few things in the works, but the most leveraged ones will be browser and server plugins. Anyone want to make the Visicalc of the real Web 3? Get us those plugins.

As it happens, there are two events coming up where we can meet and work (both are designed for that):

• VRM Day, on Monday, 27 April.
• IIW, from Tuesday to Thursday, 28 to 30 April.

If you want to approach MyTerms development from an AI angle, there’s also the Agentic Internet Workshop (AIW) on Friday, 1 May. All three are at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. VRM Day is free. IIW and AIW are cheap as conferences go.

Love to see and work with you at any or all of those.