Sure we should be trying to halt it! How? That's tough. We've got economies of scale and the network effect working against us. But there's a lot going on in a

Sure we should be trying to halt it! How? That's tough. We've got economies of scale and the network effect working against us. But there's a lot going on in a lot of places trying to address this. I'm no expert, but it's a topic of great interest at the Berkman Center (where I'm a senior researcher), e.g. AmberLink.org and Perma.cc. Tim Berners-Lee has the Solid project (http://www.csail.mit.edu/solid_mastercard_gift http://www.csail.mit.edu/solid_mastercard_gift). BitCoin and especially the BlockChain tech underneath it offer some hope. The W3C WebID (https://www.w3.org/wiki/WebID https://www.w3.org/wiki/WebID) initiative could help decentralize authentication. There's no shortage of projects underway. But the forces of centralization are well-entrenched, powerful, and often offer great user experiences. I share your less than optimistic fears. But one of the hopeful things about the Net is that large centralized players can co-exist with decentralized sites and services. The long tail does not get the attention that the short head does (by its very nature), but there will always (?) be lots of creative work and lots of meaningful connections being made there.