The Web You Want, part 1
Event date:
Location Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
On April 17, 2026 (the day after Smashing Conference Amsterdam), and June 10, 2026 (the day before CSSday).
What would the web be like if it was up to you?
The wonderful core principle of the web is that the web is for everyone. This principle is probably the base of its enormous success. And it makes the web to this peculiar place, where people can publish their own writings, their videos, their ideas. It is a place where people from tiny subcultures can find each other and grow into international, thriving communities. It is a place where the excluded can feel included. It is a place for experiments and play, for sharing and inclusion.
But this idea that the web is for everyone, is also a source of some strange and complicated paradoxes. For instance, if the web is for everyone, you could argue that it is also for huge organisations that want to own it. Or, another interesting paradox is: if everyone is allowed to make things on the web, you cannot expect every website to be usable for everyone: not everybody is an expert in building interfaces. And if it is for everyone, you can expect to get in trouble with regimes that do not like everyone to have a say. Bullies are allowed to use the web as well.
While the wonderful, playful, experimental web is still there, it doesn’t get the attention it should get. Large Silicon Valley corporations seem to dictate what the web should be like. But is their vision of the web really the web you want? This brings the teachers of the CMD program to the question: what kind of web do you actually want? This event is organized around these questions.
Date: April 17, 2026
Location: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Cost: Both events, on both days, are free and accessible to everyone. You do not need a ticket for Smashing Conf or CSS Day.