I know things are bad on the open web…but it could get even worse. Imagine any of these scenarios:
1. What if the Internet Archive got shut down after all those lawsuits. Ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41482620
2. What if Google suddenly stopped high-ranking Wikipedia links. Ref: https://mastodon.social/@ricmac/114205578635297619
3. What if the next generation of internet users doesn’t read and so short looping videos *completely* take over. Ref: https://overcast.fm/+AA1Ledu9mbc
Scary times. All we can is continue to support #openweb.
I’ve also been pondering this: it’s really fecking difficult these days to get linked to by other websites. Back when I started an unknown blog called ReadWriteWeb in 2003, I was able to grow ‘domain authority’ via backlinks and trackbacks from other blogs (some more well known). But since blogging has all but disappeared now, and people ‘comment’ on things via social media, nobody actually links back to you anymore. Which means hard to grow PageRank etc. Anyway, yet another open web challenge.
@ricmac Yes, this generation is a complete mess, this should not come as any surprise after 20 years of bowing down to the #deathcult of neoliberalism (economics), post-modernism (identity politics) and the #dotcons (#geekproblem).
What do we need to do to step away from this mess, is something our #fashernistas are still not really talking about, and need to #OMN
@ricmac The internet was captured by a handful of giant corporations years ago. We've never had a reason to think those corporations will make choices to support the public good.
@ricmac 4. what if newspapers were written by AI, which is controlled by only a bunch of people in the world.
What if the electric grid just melted down? and data centers became infested with real rats and cockroaches?
@ricmac I'm more worried about the Internet Archive deleting some people's legitimate files that don't contain illegal content without notice and without being given a reason
@ricmac that reminded me that I wanted to donate to IA, thanks!
@ricmac
Remember the days when Americans would say to one another, "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."