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A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

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Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#31

Post by dghughes »

dredmorbius wrote: post #25
BjoernKW wrote: post #13

Ironically, GitHub is a prime example of why centralisation is harmful. If GitHub suddenly disappeared tomorrow (or even just went offline for a few hours), many software build processes in the world would grind to a halt. Sure, because Git is a decentralised protocol eventually it'd all be brought back up again but it'd cause a major disruption and at the very least create enormous costs.

Or if GitHub became Sourceforge.

Didn't GitHub jump the shark already after that notorious faux diversity presentation?

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#32

Post by johannes1234321 »

mioelnir wrote: post #29
johannes1234321 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your wiki, and all links leading to your project and all tooling you've built around.

No idea about the other things, but the wiki is just an additional git repo that you can check out like any other one.

And then you still need the infrastructure to run it on a site where contributors already have an account or don't mind the extra burden of registration.

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#33

Post by fredsir »

ekianjo wrote: post #21
BjoernKW wrote: post #13

Ironically, GitHub is a prime example of why centralisation is harmful. If GitHub suddenly disappeared tomorrow (or even just went offline for a few hours), many software build processes in the world would grind to a halt. Sure, because Git is a decentralised protocol eventually it'd all be brought back up again but it'd cause a major disruption and at the very least create enormous costs.

You could easily move tomorrow to another git based service. The only stuff missing would be issue management.

Many rely on Github for more than source control hosting and issues. It's really not a non-issue.

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#34

Post by melvster »

The most advanced decentralized system Ive seen in web 3.0 is also the one Tim Berners-Lee talks about, solid. While still very new, I think it has more than sufficient power to take back your data from the large monopolies. One nice feature, as you'd expect from the inventor of the web, is that it's 100% backwards compatible with existing Web technology.

https://github.com/solid/solid

Link to github repo above

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#35

Post by chestnut-tree »

A real barrier to a decentralised web is the difficulty of installing software on a server. I know that sounds really mundane and inconsequential in the broader debate about a decentralised web, but consider the following...

Imagine if installing a server-side chat app, message board, project management app, or CMS were as easy as installing a desktop app. In a desktop app, it's usually one click to start the install and then, if necessary, you're guided through a few screens to complete the install. Want to uninstall? The OS (operating system) will provide a feature to manage that.

Now consider how complicated installing on a server is in contrast. Upload you files to a folder or directory, enable permissions, set configurations not just for your server but also the language the program is written in - the list goes on. No wonder SaaS (Software as a Service) is thriving like never before. Who, other than technical folks, could possibly have the time, interest or inclination to set up a self-hosted solution when the barrier is so high? Perhaps some in the tech field would like to keep it that way? Would Saas be less attractive if installing a self-hosted solution was simple, easy, quick and secure?

Surely an essential part of a decentralised web is that companies, organisations and individuals choose to run their own software using open protocols and data formats. But until the ease, security and simplicity of installation improves for web software, it simply won't happen on a large scale.

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#36

Post by vamur »

ekianjo wrote: post #21
BjoernKW wrote: post #13

Ironically, GitHub is a prime example of why centralisation is harmful. If GitHub suddenly disappeared tomorrow (or even just went offline for a few hours), many software build processes in the world would grind to a halt. Sure, because Git is a decentralised protocol eventually it'd all be brought back up again but it'd cause a major disruption and at the very least create enormous costs.

You could easily move tomorrow to another git based service. The only stuff missing would be issue management.

Except there are a lot of OSS and side projects hosted on github. It will take a long time for these to find their backups and move to another service. And some will lose source code due to faulty or outdated backups.

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#37

Post by Arathorn »

dredmorbius wrote: post #28
susurrus wrote: post #7

Do they even have proofreaders at TechCrunch? They keep repeating paragraphs!

Well, they were similar, but showed variation. Now all we need to do is introduce selection, and the articles can write and evolve themselves!

I have no idea where the mangled paragraphs came from - they weren't in the version I sent TechCrunch :(

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#38

Post by ocdtrekkie »

imglorp wrote: post #6
Alex3917 wrote: post #4

The real issue is that we need to make it illegal to give out free content, unless it's distributed under an open license. Otherwise advertising-supported businesses will always be able to outcompete everyone else via dumping, and these businesses always benefit from being increasingly centralized. That's why we don't have liberal newspapers anymore in the U.S., because ad supported papers put them all out of busines…

The centralization is a good point, but I wanted to ask about why > we don't have liberal newspapers anymore in the U.S. Most conservatives would say the papers and media outlets are _all_ liberal. Would you expand on that spectrum? > it's unethical to surf the web without using an adblocker It's also unethical to insert malware into ads, or to hire syndication services that allow it. I'll continue to block until tha…

>> we don't have liberal newspapers anymore in the U.S. >Most conservatives would say the papers and media outlets are _all_ liberal.

I think this effect can be best demonstrated by a conversation I had with a Google fan last week. In particular, I've had an ongoing banter with him about his choice to refer to The Verge as "iVerge". I find this very odd, that people believe The Verge has a strong Apple bias.

You see, The Verge regularly gets exclusive interviews and opportunities from Google. When the Pixel was announced, The Verge staff had already been sent a demo unit, and they had a ton of quotes from senior Google employees available to use in their article, written in advance. Why would an Apple-biased blog be given so much direct access to Google? And this isn't new by any stretch of the imagination.

What I've come to recognize is that The Verge will shill for anyone who gives them the goods. Exclusives are as valuable as Google or Apple outright cutting them a check, because it guarantees a ton of page views. Apple and Google both are pretty manipulative when it comes to their press, and unsurprisingly, The Verge rarely posts hard-hitting critical material of either, because hurting a company's reputation in an article is a great way to get blacklisted by their PR team.

Anyways, the point of the story: The Google fan stated that even though The Verge seemed equally positive about both companies, that it was Google, in his opinion, which was innovative and did amazing things. So by giving Apple similar coverage, The Verge was being biased towards Apple. Because in his opinion, Apple didn't deserve the praise, but Google did.

If you are a biased viewer, a moderate voice can be quickly confused with bias for the other side. This is also, for instance, why liberals think I'm a conservative, and conservatives think I'm a liberal.

Re: A decentralized web would give power back to the people online

#39

Post by marcosdumay »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #12
Alex3917 wrote: post #4

The real issue is that we need to make it illegal to give out free content, unless it's distributed under an open license. Otherwise advertising-supported businesses will always be able to outcompete everyone else via dumping, and these businesses always benefit from being increasingly centralized. That's why we don't have liberal newspapers anymore in the U.S., because ad supported papers put them all out of busines…

> At the very least people need to be trained that it's unethical to surf the web without using an adblocker. It's also unethical that ad Networks spread malware (that happened multiple times) and cause costs from my mobile company due to all those auto playing videos. It's also unethical that they track me all over the web. In a newspaper I'm not tracked and no ads jump at me and I get to throw away all those stupid…

Eh, you are not the one with problems noticing the without part. Pattern matching is powerful.
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