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Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

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Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#101

Post by pwdisswordfish2 »

kgwxd wrote: post #79
pwdisswordfish2 wrote: post #43

The internet could be "fixed" by regulating advertising. In the beginning there were rules. No commercial use. When that was lifted we started the descent into where things are now. It began with a lawyer posting an ad about immigration services to Usenet. It has come a long way since then. All the while, the web browser has supported always advertising, making it easier and easier to consume ads, buy and sell via th…

I think if browsers didn't allow JS calls to other domains without a user prompt it would solve almost all the woes ads/trackers bring. I'm willing to give up whatever optimizations the current silent behavior allows. I'm sure Google would do everything to stop that from ever being standard though.

Let us imagine that there are options to disable or exclude these "features", i.e., silent behaviours.

Here is a question for you. Would you prefer that these options be

a. only run-time (hopefully not set to defaults that suit advertising and tracking),

b. only compile-time (imagining further that these browsers could be compiled with less resources and in less time), or

c. both.

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#102

Post by _630w »

pwdisswordfish2 wrote: post #43

The internet could be "fixed" by regulating advertising. In the beginning there were rules. No commercial use. When that was lifted we started the descent into where things are now. It began with a lawyer posting an ad about immigration services to Usenet. It has come a long way since then. All the while, the web browser has supported always advertising, making it easier and easier to consume ads, buy and sell via th…

Google and Facebook benefitted the most from GDPR and grew in size, fyi.

Google helped write GDPR.

I am tired of hearing this troupe of putting more and more regulations to stop shit from breaking when exactly this caused monopolies in many traditional sectors that haven't been changed since like forever because the red tape to do anything requires a team of expensive lawyers.

If you are for more regulation, please at least come up with a way to regulate that seems practical.

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#103

Post by ta17711771 »

kbrosnan wrote: post #59
ta17711771 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be more interested in a fork with site isolation per process, no X11 exploits on Linux, etc. We need a new Gecko - perhaps a fork of something else with all the resources Gecko gets put into it.

You are describing the Fission project [1]. You can enable it in nightly builds. It does break some things, crash a bit more often etc. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Project_Fission

Better many, many years late than never, I suppose.

Good resource!

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#104

Post by pwdisswordfish2 »

_630w wrote: post #102
pwdisswordfish2 wrote: post #43

The internet could be "fixed" by regulating advertising. In the beginning there were rules. No commercial use. When that was lifted we started the descent into where things are now. It began with a lawyer posting an ad about immigration services to Usenet. It has come a long way since then. All the while, the web browser has supported always advertising, making it easier and easier to consume ads, buy and sell via th…

Google and Facebook benefitted the most from GDPR and grew in size, fyi. Google helped write GDPR. I am tired of hearing this troupe of putting more and more regulations to stop shit from breaking when exactly this caused monopolies in many traditional sectors that haven't been changed since like forever because the red tape to do anything requires a team of expensive lawyers. If you are for more regulation, please a…

I am tired of hearing this troupe of there is no perfect solution so therefore no solution is acceptable.

Another favourite is "I see unethical behaviour at my job, but if I quit nothing would change, therefore I will keep helping them do what they do."

If laws were passed that gave users a cause of action against Google and Facebook for breaking rules, then there would be some motivation for those companies to change their behaviour.

It is sad but that is how corporate behaviour is shaped in America. Threat of litigation. Fear.

Empowering David to keep Goliath honest. That is one of the ideals America was once known for. Big tech however knows no David. They have little to fear.

Alternatively you can support the "system" we have now -- tweet and/or post your complaints to the web, which of course Big Tech is controlling and monitoring. Vent your frustrations till you turn blue. This system is not working. Nothing is changing. These companies are doing things users know is wrong but none of this violates any law or any user's rights in America.

I am not for more regulation. I am for change. Giving David the ability to take on Goliath is one way to facilitate change that is known to work in America. Is it perfect? Not even close, but it is effective at changing corporate behaviour.

Choosing to shoot down every proposed solution is also choosing to keep things the way they are. Sitting on your hands is not keeping things from getting worse.

I never said anything about GDPR and personally I was never a fan. However I do appreciate that it is something. Someone, outisde America, had the balls to take action.

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#105

Post by totemandtoken »

cousin_it wrote: post #22
lightninglu10 wrote: post #6

Hey all, Patrick here & one of the mentors for the Mozilla Builders "fix-the-internet" incubator https://builders.mozilla.community/ . We have 3 different offerings for this Summer. All incubator style, meaning you meet weekly or biweekly with mentors and we really try to help drive you from point A to point C. 1. $75k investment in a startup. MUST be serious about wanting to build something awesome and put in the ha…

Here's my "fix the internet" idea: build a search engine that is itself ad-free, and searches over only the ad-free segment of the web. More options: allow users to exclude sites with ads, sites with ecommerce, sites with tracking, or simply allow users to build and share lists of sites to exclude. Rationale: the unmonetized or under-monetized web was awesome, a lot of it still exists under the radar now, and it woul…

Not the exactly the same thing, but I had this idea for something I call "newsbetting." Basically, you get a de-titled article and have to bet as to whether it is a right-wing or left-wing biased source. The news source collects the transaction cost of the bet and the nonprofit platform is sustained through grants/donations. The goal was to provide an alternative revenue stream for news organizations which cuts out the need for ads entirely. I don't know if this idea could extend to other types of media but maybe there are ways, like sponsored vs non-sponsored content for tech news, replication prediction markets for scientific news, etc.

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#106

Post by EGreg »

lightninglu10 wrote: post #6

Hey all, Patrick here & one of the mentors for the Mozilla Builders "fix-the-internet" incubator https://builders.mozilla.community/ . We have 3 different offerings for this Summer. All incubator style, meaning you meet weekly or biweekly with mentors and we really try to help drive you from point A to point C. 1. $75k investment in a startup. MUST be serious about wanting to build something awesome and put in the ha…

Hi Patrick. Thanks so much for linking this.

This may be a stupid question but ... what are you looking for in the "affiliation" field in the Application?

Just a bit of background. This was practically made for us. We've built a "Social Operating System for the Web", an open source platform that lets any organizations have their own Facebook-level online community as easily as they can have a blog with Wordpress. We have poured years into this, attracted 8 million users in over 95+ countries, and are definitely in it for the long haul. (https://qbix.com/platform)

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#107

Post by searchableguy »

pwdisswordfish2 wrote: post #104
_630w wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Facebook benefitted the most from GDPR and grew in size, fyi. Google helped write GDPR. I am tired of hearing this troupe of putting more and more regulations to stop shit from breaking when exactly this caused monopolies in many traditional sectors that haven't been changed since like forever because the red tape to do anything requires a team of expensive lawyers. If you are for more regulation, please a…

I am tired of hearing this troupe of there is no perfect solution so therefore no solution is acceptable. Another favourite is "I see unethical behaviour at my job, but if I quit nothing would change, therefore I will keep helping them do what they do." If laws were passed that gave users a cause of action against Google and Facebook for breaking rules, then there would be some motivation for those companies to chang…

You still didn't propose a solution. You just said you want to regulate advertising industry but how will you do that?

There is a clear precedent that fining doesn't stop companies and political systems won't overfine. So are you going to fine companies more? Are you going to limit the number of fines and dissolve the company? Are you going to propose another GDPR-eiqsque but for advertising? Because GDPR helped big companies - especially ad networks. What happens when companies become too big (as if they aren't already)? Do you really believe government can always do what it wants with the big companies?

No. History has proved it wrong multiple times. Companies used to slave and colonize countries. Today, they probably won't do that. They can just push misinformation and change behavior by manipulating what you see/hear/read. They are going to affect your government officials and policy makers. Those use facebook and google too probably. Your president use twitter, are twitter's algorithm manipulating him? Have you seen his feed? What if his feed is an echo chamber?

What is the actual regulation? I am not against change but if you don't specify how, then I am not sure it's a conversation worth having. Everyone wants things to change. Some people would like if everyone moved to fb. But without explaining your position with actual stats, how your solution will likely affect the problems, how am I going to differentiate your proposal from several thousands asking for more consolidation i.e opposite of what you are asking.

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#108

Post by Conan_Kudo »

bhauer wrote: post #75
gkoberger wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tough. People at Mozilla care so much about privacy, to the point that (when I worked there 2010-2012), they refused to do "services" the same way Google did (aka a login and a central server). So as a result, Chrome "just worked" and Firefox was completely unusable. The people at Mozilla really care about privacy. But they also have to build something people can actually use. That means finding a balance betwee…

> ...they refused to do "services" the same way Google did (aka a login and a central server). So as a result, Chrome "just worked" and Firefox was completely unusable. I think Mozilla found the perfect solution to services. They provide a service and open source the implementation [1]. This gives a "just works" option (which is still probably setting a pretty high privacy bar because it's Mozilla) and a fully self-h…

As someone else said in here, I don't think they've open sourced the Pocket server software...

At least I haven't seen it yet.

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#109

Post by lightninglu10 »

EGreg wrote: post #106
lightninglu10 wrote: post #6

Hey all, Patrick here & one of the mentors for the Mozilla Builders "fix-the-internet" incubator https://builders.mozilla.community/ . We have 3 different offerings for this Summer. All incubator style, meaning you meet weekly or biweekly with mentors and we really try to help drive you from point A to point C. 1. $75k investment in a startup. MUST be serious about wanting to build something awesome and put in the ha…

Hi Patrick. Thanks so much for linking this. This may be a stupid question but ... what are you looking for in the "affiliation" field in the Application? Just a bit of background. This was practically made for us. We've built a "Social Operating System for the Web", an open source platform that lets any organizations have their own Facebook-level online community as easily as they can have a blog with Wordpress. We…

Hm, I thought we got that fixed up.

Put the school you went to or the last company you worked at, if it still exists when you apply!

Re: Mozilla goes incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup early-stage investments

#110

Post by lightninglu10 »

lightninglu10 wrote: post #109
EGreg wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Patrick. Thanks so much for linking this. This may be a stupid question but ... what are you looking for in the "affiliation" field in the Application? Just a bit of background. This was practically made for us. We've built a "Social Operating System for the Web", an open source platform that lets any organizations have their own Facebook-level online community as easily as they can have a blog with Wordpress. We…

Hm, I thought we got that fixed up. Put the school you went to or the last company you worked at, if it still exists when you apply!

Or just put Qbix
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