Designing the Human-Centered Layered Web

​Session 3: Designing the Human-Centered Layered Web

​Monday, August 24, 2026 · 11:30 AM–1:00 PM PT

​What would we build if we wanted AI to become a powerful inhabitant of the Internet without becoming its landlord?

​The third A Fork in the Web workshop moves from diagnosis to architecture.

​Instead of imagining one dominant platform or one universal AI interface, we will explore a Web in which many independent environments can exist around shared resources. Communities, research groups, civic spaces, creative networks, educational environments, and AI systems could each bring their own context, governance, tools, and relationships while remaining interoperable.

​Participants will work with a shared Web resource and design multiple independent environments around it. We will identify what must remain portable, what should remain sovereign, and what kinds of open protocols are needed for discovery, coexistence, context exchange, and interaction.

​We will work with architectural elements such as:

• ​people and presence

• ​overlays and smart tags

• ​portable identity and data

• ​interoperable communities

• ​trust and governance

• ​open protocols and bridges

​Each group will finish by drafting a concise architectural requirement beginning with:

​“If the Web is to remain human-centered when AI is ubiquitous, then…”

​That requirement can then be compared against the current Desirable Properties and developed further through the Challenge.

Series note

​All four workshops are organized by the Meta-Layer Initiative and connected to the Desirable Properties Challenge. Each session stands alone, so people can join at any point. Participants who attend all four sessions and complete the learning or contribution requirements will be eligible for the series badge, with a Pearl Contributor upgrade pathway for those who develop a substantive DP patch, socialize it, receive feedback, revise or explain, and reflect on what they learned.

Pre-Read (4 mins)
https://desirableproperties.org/series/fork-in-the-web-workshops/session/3