Periwinkle & The Open Web Initiative
Overview:
Periwinkle is part of the open web initiative—a distributed approach where users own and host their own data. So far, the open web has been something that various disparate groups have attempted to build with varying degrees of success (see Mozilla's perspective, Mastodon, and CERN's Open Web Search project). Historically, these solutions have been largely accessible and useful primarily to techies.
Recently, however, the movement seems to have gained critical mass, and we are seeing more open web solutions coming to market that are accessible to typical users. This critical mass is somewhat influenced by recent actions of the US government, which have demonstrated the ability to persuade Big Tech to shut down individual and company accounts on their services if you fall out of favour.
This precedent has the EU, Britain, and many other countries and companies actively looking for alternatives that lack a centralised, US-controlled "kill switch." Examples driving this concern include scenarios where Microsoft 365 is banned, discussions around military tech "kill switches" (like the F-35), and the reality of kill-switched Ukrainian tractors.
The open web offers a series of solutions that can help mitigate these risks. Like starting anything new, changing from the incumbent to an alternative is hard work, and the transition phase will be challenging. However, the rewards are substantial: data sovereignty—owning and controlling your data, your company's data, your country's data, and your means of computation.