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It gets me thinking about community agency in technology. Large scale consumer technology has a lot of central planning in it, by nature of how specialised the
by grlass 5y ago
It gets me thinking about community agency in technology.
Large scale consumer technology has a lot of central planning in it, by nature of how specialised the skills required to produce many aspects of it are.
But central planning has its tail risks and other downsides as history attests.
I'm curious about how communities can be better empowered to make these choices for themselves, be it how moderation is done on social media, or what features are prioritised in consumer electronics.
- dotancohen 5y agoI'm interested in a reduced feature phone for myself, strictly to reduce pressure from every bank, pharmacy, clothing store, and supermarket to install their apps. So long as it runs Ankidroid and syncs via CardDav, I'd like a phone with as few features as possible. The problem is that _my_ two important features are different from _your_ two important features. Almost by definition, no reduced feature phone would be fit for a large audience, unless that large audience has a single common denominator. Like with this Kosher Phone and it's religious target demographic.
- grlass 5y agoToffler's book Future Shock has some interesting discussion about advanced production techniques allowing high degrees of bespoke customisation with very little additional costs beyond a generic production line. We're still a long way from there RE smartphones, though projects like the PinePhone with hardware switches for things like microphone, camera, WiFi etc, along with a less locked down OS perhaps show a path to achieving this.