The Web has a
Big Missing Feature

There is more to the Web than we’ve been told.

For thirty years, we’ve mistaken the surface for the system — a page for a world, a scroll for a journey. The true frontier lies above the webpage, in the Meta-Layer — a space where people, AIs, and communities can connect in context, build trust, and co-create meaning. It’s time to rediscover what the Web was always meant to be: layered, shared, and alive.

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.

Learn More

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We once thought the Earth was flat —
and the Web, a single layer.

🎨 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

Join the Challenge →

Learn about Microcreds

🎩 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

View White Paper →

Chat with the Bard →

The Meta-Layer Enters the IETF

Help shape the future of a civic Internet architecture

The first Internet-Draft introducing the Meta-Layer to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been posted - a milestone in recognizing the Meta-Layer as a viable next environment for Internet-scale collaboration.

This draft outlines a framework for the space above the webpage, where digital presence, context, and trust can be managed openly, not owned or siloed.

We invite engineers, architects, researchers, and civic technologists to review and comment on the draft. Your feedback will help ensure that this vision evolves as a truly interoperable, community-driven standard.

Read & comment

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 starts with defining the desirable properties of a Meta-Layer.

150+

50+

Contributors

Ideas
Contributed

21

Desirable
Properties

The Desirable Properties of a Meta-Layer

The Use Cases of a Meta-Layer

Call for Input

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.

This is what we're gonna build, together. This will be the largest collaboration of developers & vibe coders on an open source project. Let's give them some direction.

Give us your best ideas. Help shape the next level of the Internet. Contribute to a safer, freer, and fairer digital world. Get a historic Overweb badge.

Review →

Learn →

Contribute →

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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!

Get the Book →

Listen to the Audio Intro →

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.

View Open Roles

Submit Your Superpower

The Web has a Big Missing Feature