The open web is under pressure from AI companies and large platforms, but its troubles did not start with AI. We also chose convenience over control, and we will have to change that if we want a better web.
  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzEnglish
    12·
    4 days ago

    EDIT: I’ve read the full text and I recommend it, it’s good food for thought.

    He is right to point out that the open web is under pressure from powerful companies which have grown rich by extracting value from open systems and are now increasingly hostile to the norms that made those systems possible in the first place.

    Okay, this is going to be good. Right off the bat the author is already correctly pointing out who’s to blame, why,

    That said, I think it is important to be careful not to turn this into a story where AI is the problem, or even the beginning of the problem. The current AI wave is accelerating the enclosure of the web, but the open web’s troubles are much older than that.

    how, and when. Props.

    But neglect is not innocence. // If the open web was truly valuable, then why did so few of us support it economically?

    i.e. you’re still to blame if you did nothing, and you were in a position to do the right thing. And we were all in that position, making us all guilty.

    On a lighter side… if you’re reading this, odds are you’re already doing at least something. The Fediverse might have a thousand problems, but it is a step into the right direction — a step back, into the freedom we’re losing.

    • wheezy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      8·
      4 days ago

      Sounds like someone trying to play defense for the structures of capitalism that lead us to this inevitable state.

      Sounds like you got fooled by the opener where they “correctly placed blame on the corporations” and then spent the rest of it talking about the equivalent of “the carbon footprint” or “the need for more paper straws”.

      An article that doesn’t focus on the private ownership of the entire web infrastructure both software and hardware and then tries to say “individuals could have prevented this”. Like, individuals get removed from their positions of influence when they DON’T align with those of capital. That’s how the world works. Individuals that speak out are filtered out.

      My colleagues and I at Microsoft that stood again their support of Genocide the last couple years can tell you that well. We were pushed out and fired. There is no “make better decisions” within these structures. They won’t stop when children become the targets of their AI targeting systems. They’ll silence you and blacklist you from the industry.

      Definitely missing the forest for the trees to the point that it’s gotta be on purpose.

      • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzEnglish
        4·
        4 days ago

        I won’t talk about purpose or similar, but… yes, that’s a good point. You’re right — the author should have talked about this; now thinking, the “cultural choice” he talks about is simply alienation, it’s a consequence of the capitalist system, and the whole thing about corporations creating pressure against the open web they rely on is a typical contradiction of the system.

        He (and I, too) focused too much on the small picture, but not in the big one.

        • wheezy@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          4 days ago

          Thanks for the intelligent reply. I was definitely venting some personal frustration and came off unhelpful in some ways on a reread.

          I guess I would criticize myself by saying; small picture stuff is a good place to focus action, but when it is working within a system that will remove you at the first sign of your work challenging that system that’s an unwinnable battle. I think a lot of people get stuck in that place maintaining their position while “doing the most good” (or often times these days “the least evil”)

          Actual change will happen from individuals doing small parts within a structure that actually is built to create change. No Azure For Apartheid is a part of current and past Microsoft employees working for that pressure. Just an example from my personal experience. I shouldn’t make the mistake of criticizing without offering solutions for change.

          It’s obviously a bit beyond the scope of the article in terms of activism. But, it is this type of organized structure that needs to be built to create change. And with the use of AI in warfare tech companies are becoming the new Lockheed Martin and Boeing. I don’t think an “open web” is possible when these incentives of state power are so strongly aligned.

          We are forced to the fringes of Lemmy and the like because we are not organized and do not have power. Hoping that migration of the masses will happen through “willpower” alone is misunderstanding how platforms like Reddit maintain the masses to begin with.

    • lb_o@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      After reddit killed /all fediverse is now the only place to receive a random informational flow filtered by other people.

      Without fediverse there would be nothing left for me in the internet

  • DeckPacker@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago

    "We all are responsible for supporting the open web better!

    Anyways, please follow me on fucking Bluesky or Farcaster" (which is apparently some crypto shit Twitter alternative)

    This has to be sattire, right?

    How can you say, that we have an obligation to support the open web, while simultaneously only posting on commercial, semi closed platforms and ignoring the fediverse?