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It didn't have to end up that way. The data is behind a cloud API because data is a source of power and the API is a control point. Whatever data the uber app n

It didn't have to end up that way. The data is behind a cloud API because data is a source of power and the API is a control point. Whatever data the uber app needs could have been on his phone or in a cdn close to his phone or in a cloud computer operating on the user's behalf instead of for Uber. The balance of power has shifted asymmetrically towards centralized entities, but it does not mean that is the only possible solution. It is mostly a history lesson to understand why the balance today is what it is. It could have been different. Humans made all this stuff, there's no laws of nature saying software distributed systems only work if a megacorp is positioned in the center of it. Consider the world wide web.

schoen 9y ago
Yes, and as in your web example, the economic dynamics can sometimes point the other way, providing a strong incentive to maintain compatibility with an installed base that's not really under the service operator's control. People providing services can argue a lot about the limitations for them of this situation and the advantages of having more control: https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/ https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/ http://paulgraham.com/road.html http://paulgraham.com/road.html (Analemma_'s comment elsewhere in this thread also expresses this.) But it also comes at a cost to users' power and autonomy: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-s...