This is a memoir by the creator of the Web. In it he details the events that led to its creation, the constant battle to keep it free, and his thoughts on its future.
I found him to come across as very humble. He consistently points out the contributions of everyone around him. It would have been entirely possible for him to try to own his creation, to attempt to gain power and money from what he built. This is the world I see around me right now. It almost seems impossible today for computer systems to not be owned by a single corporation. Each new advance or application is a rush to dominate and to exploit. It never used to feel that way. As a child growing up with a ZX Spectrum, magazines were filled with type-in code. As a teenager with a family PC, I was surrounded by the Internet, email, IRC, websites. When I went to university I discovered Linux, BSD, GNU, the GPL. Computers were about sharing, creating, and connecting the world together in a hopeful and positive way.
It felt reassuring to read that he has a similar reaction to mine about social media, about the addictive and destructive nature of the software. He also details his attempts to create a different world, the SOLID protocols, where people own their own data and control who has access. I truly hope he is on to something. I am not as optimistic as he is about the state of the world.