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Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech

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Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech

#71

The "Protocols, Not Platforms" debate is naive and misses the point. Here is why: - Let's say someone builds a social network protocol (including messaging, photo sharing etc). - Let's be generous and say this protocol becomes so successful it turns into a de facto standards. - The market will rush to build the best client for the protocol. Facebook, Google, maybe an outsider will come up with the best client that ha…

A possible remedy to this might be the emergence of “fat protocols” http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are a fluke of a customer. My bodega owner is a customer. So are his kids that help him. And an old mexican lady who works in a hipster coffee shop because hipsters that own it cannot be bothered to get up at 6am to open at 7am. They use email. None of them are interested in "setting up their own email server". They are interested in being able to send email and get email.

Please read my comment fully. Helm is one such solution that gets out of your way but is too expensive. The price on these do it for you boxes needs to come down. It doesn't take much capability beyond email for one of these boxes to convince an everyday user.

> Helm is one such solution that gets out of your way but is too expensive.

My bodega owner lost interest the moment you said "solution that gets out of your way".

He simply does not care to hear about it. He wants to click on an envelop icon and see his email. He wants to type his message, hit send and know that his message is delivered.

Until the OSS, Protocols not Platforms, "Use firefox and not chrome because its technology is better" advocates internalize that not a single argument other than "does it just work?" matters to users, SaaS, Platforms and Chrome will continue to clean the clock of OSS, Protocols and Firefox.

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