What is a Meta-Layer?
It’s not a new internet—it’s a new way to interact with the internet.
A meta-layer is a space that already exists above webpages—a place where new interactions, annotations, identities, and applications can live, connected to what you’re looking at, but not owned by the webpage itself.
You’ve already seen it in action:
Hypothesis 🖊️ (for social annotation)
Ground News (for media bias)
Ad blockers, password managers, AI sidebars
These are early glimpses of what a meta-layer can be—a shared space above the web where people can think, meet, and build together.
Meta-Layer SIG
Reclaiming the Interface Layer
🧠 The space above the webpage is where annotations, presence, and overlays already live—but what if it became public infrastructure for trust, agency, and collective context?
🌐 The Meta-Layer SIG is the Internet Society’s first global group focused on that layer—and it’s now forming.
✨ Discover how you can co-create the next civic layer of the Internet.
🎨 Life Above the Web challenge
A Creative Challenge to earn an Overweb micro-credential
What does it mean to live, think, and create in the layer above the webpage—where humans and agents meet?
Make something original
Title it “…Above the Web”
Post it. Tag it. Submit it.
Use of AI = welcome
Earn the Overweb’s Creative Expression micro-credential
🎩 Meet Our Most Unlikely Spokesperson
Sir John Falstaff: Knight of the Overweb. Patron of Provenance. Verified Libertine.
“The Meta-layer doth restore what the internet hath long neglected: Presence, provenance, and the public dignity of one’s digital name.”
Resurrected from Shakespearean lore by semantic cascade and poetic accident, Falstaff now speaks for a web of dignity, consent, and context. He’s mischievous, occasionally wise, and—against all odds—a staunch believer in digital co-governance.
📘 Read His Foreword in the White Paper
🤖 Converse with Falstaff
What is the Meta-Layer Initiative?
The Meta-Layer Initiative is a global collaboration to build a connective digital layer—a living infrastructure that bridges isolated technologies, empowers communities, and fosters open innovation. It’s not just a platform—it’s a movement toward a more interoperable and equitable digital future that started with defining the desirable properties of a Meta-Layer.
250+
100+
Contributors
Ideas
Contributed
21
Desirable
Properties
Essay on the Desirable Properties of a Meta-Layer
Surfacing the Use Cases of a Meta-Layer
Prototyping Safe Human-AI Coexistence
When you understand On-Page Presence and Interactions, an entirely new digital world begins to unfold. You can't unsee it. You'll never see web the same.
A father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, challenged us to write an essay on the Desirable Properties of a Meta-Layer. We did two Calls for Input during which we received a couple hundred ideas.
This summer, we are prototyping the Safe AI trifecta: Secure Computation (with TEEs), Ubiquitous Presence (above the web), and Community Governance.
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Categories
Supercharge your Participation with Bridgit & Metta
Whether you’re bursting with ideas or just beginning to explore, Bridgit is your co-creator. This conversational assistant is designed to help you clarify, shape, and share your vision for the Meta-Layer—no expertise required.
Just describe what you're thinking or drop a link or document(s); Bridgit will help you refine it into a powerful submission. Bridgit is here to elevate your voice in 3 simple steps:
Start with (rough) idea, link, or docs
Generate submission with Bridgit
Submit with clarity and confidence
Start a conversation. Shape the future.
Our
Submission Assistant
Bridgit
Our
CoordinationCompanion
Metta
Whether you're sparking a new initiative or aligning across networks, Metta is your coordination companion. This conversational assistant helps you activate the Metaweb’s shared layer—where ideas, people, and projects sync in real time.
Bring a link, idea, or document—Metta helps you link it into the Metaweb as a living node of collaboration. Step into coordinated action in 3 simple steps:
Begin with an idea, link, or signal
Discover coordination pathways with Metta
Align and act with others—right above the Web
Get the Book that Started it All
The Metaweb: The Next Level of the Internet
Born from years of research and real-world frustration with siloed digital systems, The Metaweb lays out the vision for a public, contextual, and people-centered layer above the web.
“The notion of a meta-environment above the webpage is directionally interesting… the book presents a creative argument that warrants further discussion.”
— Vint Cerf, Co-Inventor of the Internet
Whether you're building, contributing, or just getting curious—this is the best place to begin. Stay tuned for the digital artifact!
Want to help build the connective tissue of the new internet?
We’re gathering early contributors to help shape the vibe, the tools, and the movement.
No titles. No gatekeeping. Just roles, aligned intention, and a willingness to build.
Contribute | Build | Participate
Join us to shape the future of the web.
Connect
© 2025. The Meta-Layer Initiative. All rights reserved.
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