Category: social networking

Much easier than regulating to break up Facebook, just regulate to force them to make an API for us to get data in and out. We can break them up ourselves once we have that. (source)

Neil is right, an effective way to break-up big tech monopolies is requiring they have API‘s. (Much like key government data sets across the EU will be required to have API’s from 2021 based on the 2019 PSI Directive)

A monopolistic platform that has an API will be effectively broken up by its users and by app builders as they will interact with bits and pieces from various platforms as they see fit.

That FB and Twitter e.g. have been on a path over steadily reducing public API access over time shows you the truth of that.

(Adversarial) interoperability and standards are key elements in avoiding vendor lock-ins. This is true for ‘smart home’ appliance silos just as much as for webservices.

If you don’t have an API you’re not a platform (platforms are after all bases to build/grow things on, if you stunt that ability you’re not a platform). If you’re not a platform, you’re fully liable for your user uploaded content. How’s that for a trade-off?

All platforms should be required to join the API family…

2019-07-16_04-51-20
Picture taken earlier this month at La Folie de Finfarine in Poiroux

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Op 28 en 29 september vindt IndieWebCamp Amsterdam plaats. We hebben een locatie, maar die is nog niet helemaal rond. Maar rond genoeg om zeker te weten dat IndieWebCamp plaats gaat vinden!

Na IndieWebCamp Utrecht in mei, is dit de 2e IndieWebCamp in Nederland.
Zet het weekend van 28 en 29 september vast in je agenda, en zorg dat je er bij bent!

Neem het web in eigen hand! Het is de hoogste tijd te zorgen dat het web ons tot dienst is. Door meer van het web in eigen handen te nemen. Het onafhankelijk web (indieweb) is het oorspronkelijke web, waar jij bepaalt wat je deelt, wat zichtbaar is voor anderen, en waar jouw data van jou is omdat het op je eigen site staat.

IndieWebCamp Amsterdam heeft geen publiek, alleen deelnemers. Op de eerste dag kun je sessies voorstellen of aan sessies deelnemen over elk aspect van het onafhankelijk web dat je wilt. Op de tweede dag bouw je aan je eigen deelname of bijdrage aan het open web.

Jij bent iemand die een open web wil, al wel een eigen site heeft of nog niet, misschien ben je ook ontwerper of programmeur, ben je een denker of een doener. Jij bent degene die we zoeken om twee dagen met anderen om het onafhankelijke web te bespreken, te verkennen, en te bouwen.

Meer info over aanmelding volgt eind juli.

Hossein Derakhshan onderschrijft met dit artikel in The Guardian de missie van PublicSpaces, Frank! Hij trekt het bovendien in Europees verband. Lijkt me terecht, juist ook omdat privacy, omgang met gegevens en de geopolitieke kant van data/social media een Europese aangelegenheid is, geen primair Nederlandse. @hod3r is denk ik een goede bron ook voor het diepere denkwerk achter de positionering van PublicSpaces. Heb je er nog ingangen, ben je er nog actief? Marco wel zie ik op de site.

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This blog is a bit of a commonplace book, which I keep because note keeping is a key tool in learning, thinking and ultimately doing stuff. Even though this blog is mostly oriented towards professional interests, it also builds a pretty consistent picture of my actions, whereabouts and life events over the past 17 years. That makes it a reference for myself, and a source for checking memories.

Today at IndieWeb summit Jonathan LaCour made a call to action to remember “memories are important“, part of your identity so you should “hold onto your identity; not encumbered by any silos“, and ensure those memories are in a place you fully control. Memories and identity as building blocks of agency.

He incorporated various online materials over the years into his current site, all accessible through the archives. Which reminds me I should do something like that with importing my exported FB archive here.

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Just shared at the opening of IndieWeb Summit in Portland, some very interesting statistics about the use of Brid.gy.

Brid.gy is a service that lets you connect both ways to various silos and social media platforms. I for instance use it to post to Twitter from here, and provide back Twitter’s interaction to my own site.

What stands out is that there is linear steady growth. Also the closing down of Facebook’s API and the closing of Google Plus are nicely visible as ‘saw tooths’ in the graphs.

Bookmarked Bridgy stats update by Ryan BarrettRyan Barrett

Bridgy stats time!
Looking at the graphs, the elephant in the room is clearly the Facebook shutdown. It was Bridgy’s second largest silo, numbering 1477 users when we wer…

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Adversarial Interoperability, a useful concept to keep in mind. In part the IndieWeb is a form of this, as it offers a way of staying outside walled gardens, while still being able to pass messages back and forth through its gates (i.e. API’s), through POSSE / sometimes PESOS. Though some platforms, Facebook actually, made the ‘counter offer’ of switching off their API’s. Twitter similarly has been on a path of absorbing into itself all kinds of apps (e.g. Tweetdeck) that were independent parts of the ecosystem growing on Twitter’s API, and increasing the threshold for access to the API.

Interoperability is a core value to maintain. Use it.

Read Podcast number 300: “Adversarial Interoperability: Reviving an Elegant Weapon From a More Civilized Age to Slay Today’s Monopolies” | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com by Cory Doctorow | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com

Adversarial interoperability is the consumer’s bargaining chip in these coercive “negotiations.” More than a quarter of Internet users have installed ad-blockers, making it the biggest consumer revolt in human history. These users are making counteroffers: the platforms say, “We want all of your data in exchange for this service,” and their users say, “How about none?” Now we have a negotiation!