Techdirt's Mike Masnick Joins the Bluesky Board To Support a 'More Open, Decentralized Internet' (techdirt.com) 18
Mike Masnick, a semi-regular Slashdot contributor and founder of the tech blog Techdirt, is joining the board of Bluesky, where he "will be providing advice and guidance to the company to help it achieve its vision of a more open, more competitive, more decentralized online world." Masnick writes: In the nearly three decades that I've been writing Techdirt I've been writing about what is happening in the world of the internet, but also about how much better the internet can be. That won't change. I will still be writing about what is happening and where I believe we should be going. But given that there are now people trying to turn some of that better vision into a reality, I cannot resist this opportunity to help them achieve that goal. The early internet had tremendous promise as a decentralized system that enabled anyone to build what they wanted on a global open network, opening up all sorts of possibilities for human empowerment and creativity. But over the last couple of decades, the internet has moved away from that democratizing promise. Instead, it has been effectively taken over by a small number of giant companies with centralized, proprietary, closed systems that have supplanted the more open network we were promised.
There are, of course, understandable reasons why those centralized systems have been successful, such as by providing a more user-friendly experience on the front-end. But there was a price to pay: losing user autonomy, privacy and the benefits of decentralization (not to mention losing a highly dynamic, competitive internet). The internet need not be so limited, and over the years I've tried to encourage people and companies to make different choices to return to the original promise and benefits of openness. With Bluesky, we now have one company who is trying. "Mike's work has been an inspiration to us from the start," says Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. "Having him join our board feels like a natural progression of our shared vision for a more open internet. His perspective will help ensure we're building something that truly serves users as we continue to evolve Bluesky and the AT Protocol."
There are, of course, understandable reasons why those centralized systems have been successful, such as by providing a more user-friendly experience on the front-end. But there was a price to pay: losing user autonomy, privacy and the benefits of decentralization (not to mention losing a highly dynamic, competitive internet). The internet need not be so limited, and over the years I've tried to encourage people and companies to make different choices to return to the original promise and benefits of openness. With Bluesky, we now have one company who is trying. "Mike's work has been an inspiration to us from the start," says Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. "Having him join our board feels like a natural progression of our shared vision for a more open internet. His perspective will help ensure we're building something that truly serves users as we continue to evolve Bluesky and the AT Protocol."
Decentralize what? (Score:5, Interesting)
I keep hearing "decentralize" in the same context people scream NFT and Cryptocurrency. If decentralized messaging/social networking is to not drown in buzzword soup, it needs to kick that albatross of crypto shills off it.
Yes, make sure that two things are keystones:
1) Nobody can "steamroll" over it, it's decentralized so that nobody can gatekeep it at the request of government, criminal organizations, protesters, corporations, etc.
2) The actual "protocol" , like with bittorrent, is easily implemented by others. This is so far the sticking point into bluesky not just being "better twitter", and what is drowning mastodon. We've done this song and dance before and what happened was AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger are all now defunct, not because they incorporated any of this, but because "Discord" (or "web IRC" basically) decided to see-saw back into being cool. It's likely things will see-saw back to point-to-point communications, but again....
You have to ensure ANYONE can connect to it, not just gatekeepers. It should not be the intermediaries responsibility that they are doing legal things, but rather the two end points. If two people are in India, and a photo of hamburger is offensive, the person sending the image should know better, but the person receiving it should be allowed to block communication from people they have never met without meeting in person to exchange codes first.
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...meeting in person to exchange codes first.
Unfortunately though, this is the only barricade against SPAM that has ever proven completely effective in real-world scenarios. I do understand it puts a significant damper on the forming of new communities, but so far I haven't puzzled out a way to have both. I'm open to suggestions though.
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the internet's not real life.
I agree with you but we're both wrong. See, these days people are putting their hopes and dreams upon the internet. And they're doing it to such an extent that there isn't anything else to be taken as Real to these people. When was the last time you saw someone, who should be paying attention to their surroundings, instead staring at their phone? I'll also remind you of Pokimon Go! Soon, the saying "The good ole days..." will also be gone.
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Masnick's vision works (Score:1, Flamebait)
Masnick's vision empowers expression without aritificial ("political" or "party" or "extremist") limits and works to provide platforms that are independent of government overisght, are not frought with the penalties of living with Republicans trying to censor them while whining about those same platforms censoring them.
He is an asset. Like Ron Wyden is an asset letting us know when our freedoms are being trounced. Like those who speak of freedom because they want freedom, not because they want to undo it,
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I used to like Mike and his website and purpose in life. Heck, I was even in the coffee club or water cooler club or whatever you call the small monthly donation club. But then he went full TDS and I gave up on him and his causes.
Open? Decentralised? (Score:5, Insightful)
In order to have an open decentralized Internet we need IPv6, as legacy IP is becoming increasingly expensive and more and more ISPs are putting users behind CGNAT.
And yet, bluesky despite being a recent development is only reachable via legacy IP.
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Yeah! Direct "calling" over internet! Finally! I already pay for the internet connection. Let's get rid of those middlemen.
(Cue any dope chiming in with: You can do that, just sign up for third party service/cloudthing/legacyMaBell/ISP IP "phone")
Here's my IPv6 #. That usta mean "number" and other stuff, and hash is good too, since it's all hexideximal. I'm ready, let's go.
& they'll decentralise... (Score:1)
* In case that's too obscure for some, I mean Bertram Gilfoyle's AI bot, Anton, from the TV series "Silicon Valley," although I suspect this extra info is entirely unnecessary on
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...the interwebs pipes just as soon as they can get middle-out compression & Anton* to play nicely together. * In case that's too obscure for some, I mean Bertram Gilfoyle's AI bot, Anton, from the TV series "Silicon Valley," although I suspect this extra info is entirely unnecessary on /. Is Silicon Valley /.'s Monty Python, i.e. it can be quoted without citation & everybody understands?
If they don't understand, even this little snippet won't do.
Now, if you'll pardon me, Napalm Death's "You Suffer" keeps playing on repeat.
standardize (Score:2)
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Hopefully he can get Bluesky to correct course and adopt ActivityPub like the rest of the fediverse.
This is the only way I'd even think of using it. Until then? Mastodon works quite nicely with plenty of engagement already.
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