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Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

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Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#21

Post by pascalxus »

bounded wrote: post #10

What would it take for a new social network to take users off facebook in 2017?

Start by making a list of cons. What do people not like about facebook? What's the problem with using facebook? That's where your answer lies.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#22

Post by dkarapetyan »

In some sense open and federated information networks go against the grain. Popularity of Facebook is a pretty strong indicator that all the things techies worry about are irrelevant to the general public.

Most walled gardens are built for convenience of consumption whereas most federated networks seem to assume a more active and informed participant. The kinds of features you'd build for one group are at odds with what you'd build for the other one.

Then again Brave seems to be tackling the problem from the right angle. I hope their model takes off and people start incorporating similar ideas into other open networks that respects the network participants instead of just treating them as passive consumers.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#23

Post by tobydownton »

gwicks56 wrote: post #17

Be interested in what HN thinks of Maidsafe, Storj etc. Basically decentralised versions of the internet or the cloud based around blockchain technology. Storj for example is an order of magnitude cheaper than AWS, uses peoples spare hard drive space, encrypts everything and back it up using peer to peer tech. I am currently pretty comfortable as an Android dev, but I am wondering if I should start learning everythin…

I came here to see if anyone would mention blockchain technology (which I personally believe is an important part of the solution). Yes, there are the DApps you've already mentioned, but I think the following might be as important in addressing the concern raised:

uPort: Self-Sovereign Identity (https://www.uport.me/)

Userfeeds - Content Ranking System (userfeeds.io/)

Status - Messaging Platform (https://status.im/)

Brave - Browser (https://brave.com/)

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#25

Post by mundo »

Here's a thought I've been turning over for a little while now.

It occurs to me that all extant social media apps have, at a high level, exactly the same requirements:

1. Allow users to upload some data to cloud storage 2. Make that data discoverable to certain other users 3. Show everyone ads

Whether FB, Twitter, etc were to be dislodged by another app that is essentially the same app is not terribly interesting. So let's look at which of these reqs are amenable to change:

a. "ads" - No one actually wants them, so get rid of them b. "Cloud storage" - Lots of people would rather own their data, so switch this to "the user's own server."

That sounds pretty compelling. I don't hate FB, but I'd sure rather switch to something that allows me to own my own data, and share pics of the kids with Nana without having to run them through Facegoog's billion-dollar snooping engine. However, there are two big hurdles:

i. Most people don't have a server on which to host it ii. Most people won't pay for it, so someone would have to write it and make it really easy to use, for free

...and by a lucky cooincidence, both of those objections have the same answer: Amazon. Most people don't have a server? Amazon will rent you one. Who would develop a self-hosted FB clone for free? Amazon, to get people to rent servers.

Just a thought...

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#26

Post by TulliusCicero »

mundo wrote: post #25

Here's a thought I've been turning over for a little while now. It occurs to me that all extant social media apps have, at a high level, exactly the same requirements: 1. Allow users to upload some data to cloud storage 2. Make that data discoverable to certain other users 3. Show everyone ads Whether FB, Twitter, etc were to be dislodged by another app that is essentially the same app is not terribly interesting. So…

You're kidding yourself if you think people actually want to run their own server for the purposes of social networking.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#30

Post by juliangoldsmith »

bounded wrote: post #10

What would it take for a new social network to take users off facebook in 2017?

The real problem would be network effects. Nobody uses a new social network, because nobody they know uses it.

To get people off of Facebook, you'd have to find a way around that.

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