I’m a different person because of the internet. And as the internet as a medium changes, so do I. When at first new platforms took me into conversations and minds around the world, it felt like liberation. Unfettered creativity. Freedom of information. New tools taught me new ways to learn, communicate and share. The web was a most welcome bolt on for my mind. I still find it hard to grasp what’s possible.And yet I’m unimpressed with the latest shiny tools because more often than not, they aren’t.
Just the latest toys. Plastic reproductions of originals touted as latest and greatest. Branded and bloated with investor juice. Crippled with snoop-ware and pumped fat with cash in the hope the hordes will notice the new kid on the block. Throw a few celebs into the mix and every fan forced to log in is a new ‘user’. Every new user a stat, a drone plugged into a business model tried and tested for the last 6000 years. It’s no longer enough to just make money. Show me the new business models that also do good.
Maybe after ethical shopping catches on, ethical users will follow.
I am glad some ideas before their time are getting a second chance. There is even some Innovation. It’s just not yet the ‘Open Web‘ some crave for.
Take live streaming video apps for example. They’re not new. Bloggers and clued up journalists have been streaming video from mobile devices for at least 8 years.
API’s turned on and off like taps in a public loo. Platforms big enough to be utilities, change the plumbing to ensure the fastest cashflow. Login walls to view something your friend has posted. And people still see free as meaning no cost to them. This is not only what we have. It appears to be what we’ve come to expect.
I’m all for mass adoption. It shifts behaviour. Means more people who need it get a voice.
But at what cost? The 1% rule is changing. There’s a shift in the ratio of content consumers to creators. It’s just that we’re locked out of the stories we tell with our data. That’s for others to sift though and profit from.
How we can use the internet as a tool in the fight for our fundamental freedoms when commerce and advertising sit in it’s gut like a bad pill.
I feel new users have little idea of what’s going on in the background. Of what to ask for, or even that there can be other ways of doing things.
I too get that warm fuzzy feeling when a cluster of hearts float up the screen. When a ‘Like’ hits a shared moment. But why the sudden yearning for flash-in-the-pan media? Even though we now know, these ‘temporary’ posts are only temporary to some.
Perhaps we should think about those wanting to archive the moment for more than a quick endorphin fix. Maybe our cultural history, even our civil liberties depend on it. The present can be more than an anticipated memory.
I’m always keen to connect with people who feel the same way as I do about this. We have some important decisions to make.
The augmented world we’ll wear on our face will be in ‘landscape’. And it will be richer and more physical than the world we have now.
How do you want this to work, how do you want this to feel, when the internet is inside your head?
Just got pointed to this by @BrokenBottleboy.. http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/03/30/roll-up-roll-up-to-see-the-omnibang/
I totally agree: More people need to demand a better digital future. It reminds me a lot about our food system. Up until the 80s it was seperated in the pesticide/herbicide capitalist agrobusiness vs. small scale farming and self sustainace. But back then the food industry was still feeding off its archivements and technological advance.
Consciousness grew with the “green” movement rising in Europe. It was disaster driven (trees dying from smog and the ozone hole) and everybody worried about nuclear power dystopias.
Today there is still the capitalist agro business, ever expanding, land grabbing and killing the planet. But there are also LOTS of small scale top-notch organic farming projects, collaborating and sharing knowledge – and even making it to the mainstream. Just look around in your favorite supermarket chain – you will find organic sections everywhere. Or like in Austria, even the small farmer, local food option at the supermarked.
So where will the Internet and its users go?
When even “information disasters” like Snowden’s documents, Wikileaks revelations (Stratfor, etc) and the general knowlegde about the datamining of Google, NSA, Microsoft, GCHQ, Apple and all the others,
could not really make users not to use these systems?
I think IT IS UP TO US. Use the alternatives in daily usage, recomment and help your friends to install them too. And of course: Lobby and fight politically for better regulation and better public infrastructure to combat the surveillance capitalism of the 21st century!!
Thanks for the comment Dan.
Great points and I think it’s easy for the uninitiated who is just getting interested to start thinking differently about all this. Just taking a look at the tools they are using and comparing them to what’s out there is a real eye opener.. https://www.eff.org/secure-messaging-scorecard
Christian, well said. Very well said. re: live streaming, I remember when — actually I was browsing my old TweetBook and noticed a tweet from early 2008 where I was asking for your advice about how you were streaming with your N95 and Qik and how you managed framing yourself in the video. When you replied that you simply “guessed”, it gave me courage to also try this brave new world — in 2008 — of live video streaming from one’s phone). And then 12seconds.tv, bambuser, etc. Those were solid services on top of neophyte telecomm and tele-devices — i.e. mobile phones, 3G if one was lucky otherwise basic GSM / CDMA connections.
Those times seemed more genuine.
Alas, Qik, gone. Nokia, virtually gone. 12seconds.tv, gone. Bambuser, still hanging on…for now.
Nonetheless, today we find ourselves, in a growing mobile world of LTE data and eventually VoLTE on the telecomm infrastructure side and in a multi-billion smartdevices world with boatloads of low-cost Android smart devices . More people have more smart access, that’s a good thing.
And yet, the silicon valleys of the world breathing VC money for oxygen, like you say, consume vast amounts while searching for the next big hit: Meerkat, Periscope (in the live streaming space at the moment). There is little hope that one can hang one’s hat on any of these for any extended length of time. Ephemeral, ironically, is the only thing that lasts.
The digital masterminds, like yourself, have become adroit dancers, light on your feet and agile so with little notice you can continue the dance when the music, beat, tempo suddenly changes with the introduction of the next bright, shiny object.
Keep dancing, my friend. The world is a better place because of your mastery. I thank you for your spirit of discovery, adventure, sharing, and caring. – Jeff Bundy @bundini
Hi Jeff, I appreciate your comment and my ego thanks you for the kind words. Yet I must say I feel as lost as the newbie when I wonder how to nail my stories to the web with any permanence.
I doubt anything I write has any real importance. Outside of a passing relevance. But our collected conversations reflect our exploration through the information age.
I take some solace that the hosting of this blog, looked after by people I trust, should stay online. A small part of a collective of storytellers happy to share the trite with the deeper more considered essay.
It might be that we never need to look back on who we were to learn from it. Maybe there will be forensic data bots digesting our collective past to inform the future.
I’m sure the promise of potential scarcity is attractive to some. I prefer the ideas we plant take root. So conversation and consideration can grow them into something bigger, better.
Man, Qik, that brings back memories. The N95 was a great little workhorse phone.
I used bambuser in mid-2014 on my Nokia N8 to stream our Florida wedding so my wife’s friends in France & mine in Ukraine could watch.
As far as your hope for permanence in digital conversations, perhaps the best way to do that is through using online community to augment & grow real-world community. Look at the impact one person, collaborating with and investing in friends, can have in shaping the world: e.g. Jesus & his 12 disciples; Calvin & his colleagues in 16th century Geneva; Marx, Engles, & Lenin; the physicists who created the internet protocols for their collaboration; or the cryptohackers who are developing bitcoin.
Very interesting post; enjoyed reading it.
My thoughts…. https://audioboom.com/boos/739904-random-thoughts-on-the-deterioration-of-recording-our-history-direct-communication