Not sure that I follow, but the open web is a bottom up approach rather than to down. Top down would be a controlled system with regulations and punishment, that isn't open at all.

Where does the internet of things fit in here?

Well the Open Web is one thing in the Internet of Things. Imagine what changes if we move closer to a closed web environment how that changes other things in the umbrella term. Open Web is desirable but the clock is ticking to a closed web.

Ah OK I follow you now. Unfortunately I think that clock on the open web has already ended, we've effectively had a closed web for at least a decade.

Google sure seems to want to hammer in that final nail, but it's been a long road to get here.

Honestly I can't help but think we'd be better of revisiting early decisions made in Http itself, especially cookies though long-lived connections are also risky. The gemini protocol is really interesting in that area, but I can't help think they rolled it back to far with odd decisions like not requiring cert verification, utf-8 encoding URLs, and only supporting GET requests.