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Centralization happens because it's easier and cheaper to implement services in a centralized fashion. Since users care more about features and price than about
by eterevsky 3y ago
Centralization happens because it's easier and cheaper to implement services in a centralized fashion. Since users care more about features and price than about centralization, it seems pretty obvious that this problem can't be solved with standards, since standards are unenforceable.
- nradov 3y agoStandards can be enforced through government mandates. We've seen that in the US health IT space where CMS/ONC now mandate that payers, providers, and vendors implement certain HL7, X12, and DirectTrust open interoperability standards. Compliance is fairly high. But there are also drawbacks to government mandates in terms of slowing down the pace of innovation and raising compliance costs.
- eterevsky 3y agoThis is true, but the closest example of this happening that I can think of is mandating USB-C for phones. I don't think governments have ever regulated anything like internet protocols. Also the standard has to have wide adoption before governments would consider mandating it.
- zaik 3y agoUsers could also make interoperability a requirement and thus drive standardization. Nobody is interested in an email provider that cannot send emails to other providers. After WhatsApp changed its ToS in 2020 and I didn't want to agree to the new terms, I decided to delete all IM apps which depend on a single provider and only use a single one which is compliant with the XMPP internet standard. I also wouldn't sign up for any social network that isn't ActivityPub compliant anymore.
- eterevsky 3y agoFair enough, but unfortunately you are in a tiny minority.