Most people act as if global digital communications started with the Internet, but it didn't. Prior to the Internet being widely commercially available, there were a number of commercial networks one could sign up for. The biggest were Compuserve, Prodigy, and America Online. They were proprietary, and if the stuff you wanted on one wasn't there, you'd have to just subscribe to another.
The Internet ended up growing in popularity, and the world wide web made things more accessible starting in 1991. Now, everything would live on one network.
Having a standardized platform that ISPs could compete on price, service quality, and so on caused a revolution such that today most people have numerous Internet connections. It was great for the consumer, and the companies made out OK, but they never had a chance to become massive world monopolies on Information.
I feel like this is analogous to where the Internet needs to be going in terms of services now. Instead of having massive monolithic platforms owned and operated by one company, we should have a shared protocol like ActivityPub that allows people to choose whichever service they desire, and then instead of competing by locking away content or users, sites would have to compete on UX, speed, brand, business model, or even moderation(There's no reason why the same AI moderation done to users couldn't block messages coming through the activitypub pathway just the same).
Yes, it means that you can't become the world's largest company by monopolizing a section of the population, but as we saw with the Internet, it means a huge explosion in overall investment and innovation since you can't just rest on your laurels just because you're self-sustaining.
The Internet ended up growing in popularity, and the world wide web made things more accessible starting in 1991. Now, everything would live on one network.
Having a standardized platform that ISPs could compete on price, service quality, and so on caused a revolution such that today most people have numerous Internet connections. It was great for the consumer, and the companies made out OK, but they never had a chance to become massive world monopolies on Information.
I feel like this is analogous to where the Internet needs to be going in terms of services now. Instead of having massive monolithic platforms owned and operated by one company, we should have a shared protocol like ActivityPub that allows people to choose whichever service they desire, and then instead of competing by locking away content or users, sites would have to compete on UX, speed, brand, business model, or even moderation(There's no reason why the same AI moderation done to users couldn't block messages coming through the activitypub pathway just the same).
Yes, it means that you can't become the world's largest company by monopolizing a section of the population, but as we saw with the Internet, it means a huge explosion in overall investment and innovation since you can't just rest on your laurels just because you're self-sustaining.
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