3 ms·

i'm not sure what a breakup can accomplish beside populist political goals. I meant to avoid losing the great societal benefits of the large networks the result

by trhway 7y ago

i'm not sure what a breakup can accomplish beside populist political goals. I meant to avoid losing the great societal benefits of the large networks the resulting post-breakup components/parts would have to be interoperational. Then why not enforce interoperability upon the too big players right now? Why not enforce that any client can be used for Twitter, that any player can federate/aggregate Twitter, and that any user can firehose its own data and the data of any users who gave permission? Why not enforce Facebook to allow firehose the data in similar manner and to accept posts/updates/etc. from other social networks, like posting Snaps into IG feed? Or Lyft (or some small unknown operator) ride requests routed through Uber. Any "platform" should come with API gateway with legally enforced generous performance guarantees and providing read/write access to all the user data and user visible services of the "platform". That would increase competition, give small and innovative players a chance, decrease the "winner takes all" with associated excesses and distortions and provide even greater societal benefit of making those networks even larger without the networks controlled by any one "platform". Instead of costly and obsolete breakup approach, the enforcing of interoperability and data access must become the battle cry of progressives. That would be the infrastructure of the 21st century which would even allow to efficiently approach even the super-issues like healthcare.

hos234 7y ago
It will naturally break apart just as news media broke apart along liberal and conservative, national and regional lines. There have been and continue to be attempts to consolidate news into as few orgs as possible. But beyond a 'tipping point' consolidation fails even though it's technically and economically more efficient. Because it's socially inefficient. (Same is true of religions and nations btw as population grows differences grow too and then things break). Even in democracies you can constantly see this breakage going as districts and counties across the world keep having their boundaries redrawn. Many newspapers have died out because the more inter networked we get it's more efficient to consolidate. Info flows around gatekeepers as the network gets more and more connected. Yet notice how we have so many news sources divided along social differences. They resist merging with each other. Those same forces resist consolidation of 6 billion people onto a single network. This has already happened with China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, North Korea etc where the differences are stark. Many countries are already demanding local data centers. As soon as that happens it's guaranteed some political entity will misuse the data to hold onto power and further pressure builds. Give it time and few more elections where one side has to loose (we will see many more Obama/Trump/Brexit type event where one group goes viral and beats another) and the pressure on the consolidated network will keep growing from the disappointed parties. This is still early days in the history of a social network. Niall Ferguson's book The Square and the Tower is full of examples from history of how networks of people grown, merge and break apart. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this stuff.

by trhway 7y ago

hos234 7y ago

It will naturally break apart just as news media broke apart along liberal and conservative, national and regional lines. There have been and continue to be attempts to consolidate news into as few orgs as possible. But beyond a 'tipping point' consolidation fails even though it's technically and economically more efficient. Because it's socially inefficient. (Same is true of religions and nations btw as population grows differences grow too and then things break). Even in democracies you can constantly see this breakage going as districts and counties across the world keep having their boundaries redrawn. Many newspapers have died out because the more inter networked we get it's more efficient to consolidate. Info flows around gatekeepers as the network gets more and more connected. Yet notice how we have so many news sources divided along social differences. They resist merging with each other. Those same forces resist consolidation of 6 billion people onto a single network. This has already happened with China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, North Korea etc where the differences are stark. Many countries are already demanding local data centers. As soon as that happens it's guaranteed some political entity will misuse the data to hold onto power and further pressure builds. Give it time and few more elections where one side has to loose (we will see many more Obama/Trump/Brexit type event where one group goes viral and beats another) and the pressure on the consolidated network will keep growing from the disappointed parties. This is still early days in the history of a social network. Niall Ferguson's book The Square and the Tower is full of examples from history of how networks of people grown, merge and break apart. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this stuff.