We can Haz your Internets?So while Facebook busies itself remaking the internet in the way Governments would have liked it, Google (in Google+ ) comes up with a social answer of the kind McKinsey would have arrived at had it done the math (Nova Spivak said that first, not me - so good I had to repeat it).To be fair, Google hasn't graced me with an invite to trial Google + yet (update: theyvdid about an hour after I published this). I do worry though about all the 'friend-management' that is being referenced in news reports about it.(I'll feed back in due course).
Which makes me ask: What is happening to my internet? To your internet? To the wonderful adhoc, fuzzy-edged, self forming internet?
Why do folk keep trying to put it in a box and make it behave like it were part of the old broadcast world, of mass, of control and ownership at the centre, of take not give.
I was only half joking when I tweeted (when stories about Facebook's IPO) broke that we should all leave for a bit of a laugh - and then see how much it got valued at.
Control and ownership from the centre.
The internet The Government would have given us had we asked.
But we didn't ask did we? We just did. One task at a time. Flocking. Failing, Flailing.
Don't tell me it's time the internet grew up. It's time we removed the silos and gave it back the freedom from which it flourished.
Social networks of the Facebook kind have delivered a wonderful thing - they gave everyone and their mother access to the group-forming value of the web. Once learned though, do we still need the stabilisers on?
Don't forget folks, blogs remain the single least silo'd bit of easy-user tech available to most of us through which to self form groups.
Maybe it's time to give yourself back the freedom to self-form beyond the safety zone set and owned by Zuckerberg and co? Mark, your work here is done - the kids have grown up. Let them go.
David, as ever you are spot on here. Although distributed 'control' isn't what Governments choose, the free-for-all, market-regulated internet where the cream floats to the top is still an achievable future IMO.
ReplyDeleteHowever, opportunists and shysters will always try to take advantage and maybe some legislation or control is needed to ensure freedom for the rest of us (businesses, bloggers and interested individuals).
Facebook has increasingly become ridiculous to use, I just don't want to hear all the mindless nonsense that people post hourly/daily. I think google's plan that I can separate conversations into groups etc a brilliant idea. The look and feel of Google + on the web and mobile devices is much better than anything Facebook have, maybe that's why they bought a new design team in.
ReplyDeleteI for one will be urging my family and friends on to Google +!