The idea of free information is incompatible with the existence of corporations that profit from its commodification. The battle to make information free is the battle for an entirely different world.
The idea of free information is incompatible with the existence of corporations that profit from its commodification. The battle to make information free is the battle for an entirely different world.
I absolutely agree, we can see how the internet completely changed once it started becoming commercialized. We got to the point where most people just visit a handful of websites like Reddit and Facebook. That said, I’m very optimistic about the emergence of the fediverse because it brings back the way the internet was meant to function. While the fediverse is still tiny, it is steadily growing, and it provides a serious alternative to corporate internet.
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I expect to see growth of non profit social networking where people run servers as a hobby without a monetary incentive. This is what we saw happening a lot at the dawn of the internet with people running BBS boards, IRC channels, and small personal sites. I think platforms like Lemmy and Mastodon capture some of the same appeal and a lot of people are starting become disillusioned with profit driven models. We’ll see how things develop I guess.
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So far, it seems like a lot of fairly large instances are doing well with the donation model. Only a small percentage of users have to contribute to pay for the hosting costs. Again, this worked the same way with the old internet as well. I don’t think the outcome of the fediverse being commercialized is inevitable or even likely.
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Non commercial internet never did go away though, it’s just become more niche. I think these things ebb and flow. The pendulum swings one way and then the other. :)
@yogthos @Foresight Hopefully the pendulum is starting to swing back.
The problem with the non-commercial internet has always been that there’s often been a barrier to entry, in terms of technical expertise (especially anything that involves setting up your own server).
That’s fine for those with the know-how, but it’s not so good for grandpa who gets confused and calls the grandkids each time the order of the icons changes on his phone.
#fediverse #mastodon #foss #ActivityPub #OpenSource
@ajsadauskas @yogthos @Foresight
The last bit is internet-wide problem. It really saddens me to witness my elderly parents get completely lost in a wave of mindless #DigitalTransformation.
Think non-commercial fedi has a chance if it continues to be fostered. Non-profit might still mean payment for time and resources at cost price.
For my part I’m hoping for #GrassrootsFedi to keep being relevant at specification level. Proposed some ways to get more cohesion there.
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/ideating-organization-structure-for-the-grassroots-fediverse-wiki/3037
Agreed, there is a higher barrier to entry for the fediverse at the moment. I do imagine this will get more polish as the fediverse gets more popular. We’re seeing this happening with Linux where it’s becoming a lot more accessible over the past few years even though it’s still only around 3% of overall OS market.
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