What if the “internet” became the platform it truly is and was originally envisioned to be? What if there were a “federated” network of local, regional mesh networks each with their own management, hosting activitypub instances and other open source decentralized protocols for such communities to use like the original concept of a town square and “local businesses”, without the abtract notion of far away datacenters removing people psychologically from the real-world impact that grassroots SaaS organizations serving their communities along with open forums can have? What if instead of ads within this intranet being promoted and tracked by large corporations in Delaware, silicon valley and elsewhere, they were limited to the businesses in that area? And were used to fund the network’s infrastructure and make it free for everyone? And this wouldn’t be a replacement for the internet as it exists, just an augmentation running on top of it, like a parallel structure.
This old article isn’t really about that. It’s arguing for posting everywhere, including in silos and linking back. If anything, it’s talking about the opposite of what you’re alluding to. I don’t find the argument that format doesn’t matter convincing though. What you post on tiktok isn’t the same as a voluminous blog post or a YouTube video. Sounds like a lot of work.
As much as I love decentralization and activitypub, this is very ignorant for ignoring lock in and network effect
What if the “internet” became the platform it truly is and was originally envisioned to be? What if there were a “federated” network of local, regional mesh networks each with their own management, hosting activitypub instances and other open source decentralized protocols for such communities to use like the original concept of a town square and “local businesses”, without the abtract notion of far away datacenters removing people psychologically from the real-world impact that grassroots SaaS organizations serving their communities along with open forums can have? What if instead of ads within this intranet being promoted and tracked by large corporations in Delaware, silicon valley and elsewhere, they were limited to the businesses in that area? And were used to fund the network’s infrastructure and make it free for everyone? And this wouldn’t be a replacement for the internet as it exists, just an augmentation running on top of it, like a parallel structure.
What if we didn’t even have ads on the internet?
This old article isn’t really about that. It’s arguing for posting everywhere, including in silos and linking back. If anything, it’s talking about the opposite of what you’re alluding to. I don’t find the argument that format doesn’t matter convincing though. What you post on tiktok isn’t the same as a voluminous blog post or a YouTube video. Sounds like a lot of work.