[okfn-discuss] Web 2.0 Killed the Internet (article)

Sat Jun 7 18:44:08 UTC 2014

It's interesting.  There was distinctly a time, in the early 1990's, as the
web was just flickering into existence, when I remember my excitement about
the future of the internet being about the ability of everyone to
contribute equally.

I remember imperfectly phrasing that promise to others as "A server on
every desktop."

Asymmetry of upload and download speeds made that impractical, and I
remember being heartbroken.  But now, with the dual backlash of concern
over privacy and neutrality, I actually see a window for a renaissance of
that vision...  If the appification of the net leaves enough around with
the ability to see it.

In this capacity, the most exciting recent model I've seen (though not an
open protocol) is actually BitTorrent Sync.  (There may be other similar
protocols out there as easy to use, though I'm unaware.)  One potential use
of it is as a sort of DIY LOCKSS.  The seeds of peer to peer distributed
archival and access.

There's definitely room in the future for some positive alternatives, and
room for Open to stand proudly for a range of them.

- Heath

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, William Waites <ww at eris.okfn.org> wrote:

> > if you prefer random access media) you'll definitely find it in the
> > telecommunist manifesto.
>
> There's an insight in the manifesto which is about a very early, long
> before "Web 2.0", decision that had profound effects. I plan to write
> about this at greater length, but it has to do with the choice to build
> asymmetry into the infrastructure at a low level in the access
> networks. Once this happened it raised the barrier for transmission of
> information just high enough that for most people it was difficult or
> impossible to run certain types of software. This gave a structure to
> the net that separated the producers from the consumers. From there it
> made perfect sense for wealth to concentrate in the way that was
> articulated by Tim O'Reilly -- he coined the term but he was really
> just describing what was happening. We're also seeing some of the
> fall-out from this in the net neutrality conflicts that are currently
> playing out. The reasons for this are partly technical, partly economic
> and partly political and it's difficult to know cause and effect with
> certainty. It is clear that the beneficiaries have been the financiers
> of centralised "Web 2.0" services, and those interested in surveillance
> (not mutually exclusive by any stretch).
>
> -w
>

-- 
Heath Rezabek  //  labs.vessel.cc
Icarus Interstellar  /  FarMaker Design Corps  //  icarusinterstellar.org
Open Knowledge Foundation  /  Texas Ambassador for the OKFn  //  okfn.org
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