The Mess Of Social Media

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Did you know kids don’t use email? They say they prefer social media and txt messages. The other day I opened up Pidgin for the first time in a while and realized that I haven’t added any “new” contacts in years. I barely write to my own blog and have failed to visit my RSS feed reader in a very long time.

Meanwhile, I use Facebook on a daily basis. Sometimes I keep tabs on my mobile. My problem with Facebook has recently become what my problem on MySpace used to be. I don’t like the software. I want something very different. I stay for two reasons. First, I know a lot of people who are active on Facebook. Second, I haven’t found an alternative I would want to encourage my friends to join.

The recent closure of Internet connectivity in Egypt during the revolution sends a strong message about ownership of the Internet. Ownership should be distributed. The tool that replaces Facebook should be distributed. Diaspora perhaps?

It’s really pretty simple. If we the people can hang on to the Internet – even if it means building our own – then we stand a chance. Otherwise, nothing changes from the way things have been for thousands of years. This is about to become very important.

8 Comments

Scott Farrell

http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Probably futile, but at least we can try to keep our principles. It’s not like the politicians or FCC listen to us anyway. They are just going to do whatever they want, based on whoever fills their pockets.

Zaskoda

I don’t think we should wait for anyone to listen to us. I think we just need to get started building.

Scott Farrell

Per your article also don’t forget that ICE (U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) are now shutting down foreign domains names at a whim despite local judges ruling that the sites are legal. It won’t be long before they restrict our flow of information, and that is day we are all screwed. I am liking the idea of a distributed Internet more and more these days, but I wonder how to accomplish it with such an already noisy wireless spectrum. Obviously land-based connections would defeat the purpose and would easily be controlled by corporation/government orders. Then there is the issue of getting continents connected since currently that is mostly handled by under sea fiber.

Zaskoda

I know you can create a relatively slow TCP/IP connection over HAM radio. I’m wondering what we can do (if anything) with citizen band?

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