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I thought he had an interesting point about how you can increase your user's trust in your social network platform by specifying the rules more clearly, having

I thought he had an interesting point about how you can increase your user's trust in your social network platform by specifying the rules more clearly, having a constitution of sorts for your users. But then, yeah, last paragraph - totally off the deep end. It's not that I'm opposed to his views, they just don't need to be inserted as a non-sequitur into unrelated conversations. Then again, maybe he thinks social network platforms should print their own money, in which case the experience of US govcorp is informative.

DLWormwood 18y ago
Then again, maybe he thinks social network platforms should print their own money, in which case the experience of US govcorp is informative. He thinks that platforms will take the place of both governments and corporations. http://www.kidmercuryblog.com/t1689/* http://www.kidmercuryblog.com/t1689/* A few years ago, this type would have been a believer in the upcoming "singularity."
- mindslight 18y ago
  > A few years ago, this type would have been a believer in the upcoming "singularity." The belief that technology will usurp governments is more than "a few years old" (the cyphernomicon was written in 1994).
  - DLWormwood 18y ago
    > The belief that technology will usurp governments is more than "a few years old" What the article writer is talking about is not technology per se, but a new social structure. Which is just the same "nothing new under the sun" phenomenon if you look back in history. The printing press (another disrupting technology) helped usher in modern democracy and eventually the corporation, but they still suffered the same ills prior organizational structures like the church or the kingdom did. "Platforms" will not make the bad parts of human nature go away.
dkarl 18y ago
"a constitution of sorts for your users" When your users are trying to build businesses, they'll eventually realize they need demand a binding statement of reasonable terms, i.e., a contract. The system only scales if all the users accept one contract, or minor variations on a single contract. Therefore, a constitution is a brilliant idea. The idea will encounter resistance because it contradicts two related biases that were ingrained during the early years of the web. First, the contract accepted by all users is a EULA (which eliminates all rights and guarantees no matter what the consumer thinks), not a contract (which attempts to specify a reasonable relationship acceptable to both parties). Second, people using a web site are consumers (who must be screwed blatantly and thoroughly) rather than business partners (who must be screwed subtly, if at all). I would love to see these two assumptions challenged.
- mindslight 18y ago
  For those building business, there's money changing hands, and I think equitable contracts will spring up sooner - Google's recent snafus come to mind as examples of what happens when income streams are subject to "as-is" terms. But for free services, "as-is" agreements will always reign supreme. The ability to sue a company for violating said agreement is not worth much to a user, while creating a huge aggregate liability for the company. The way to give users rights is through technical means - export functionality and interoperability create well-defined capabilities that users can easily understand and exercise.

DLWormwood 18y ago

Then again, maybe he thinks social network platforms should print their own money, in which case the experience of US govcorp is informative. He thinks that platforms will take the place of both governments and corporations. http://www.kidmercuryblog.com/t1689/* http://www.kidmercuryblog.com/t1689/* A few years ago, this type would have been a believer in the upcoming "singularity."

mindslight 18y ago
> A few years ago, this type would have been a believer in the upcoming "singularity." The belief that technology will usurp governments is more than "a few years old" (the cyphernomicon was written in 1994).
- DLWormwood 18y ago
  > The belief that technology will usurp governments is more than "a few years old" What the article writer is talking about is not technology per se, but a new social structure. Which is just the same "nothing new under the sun" phenomenon if you look back in history. The printing press (another disrupting technology) helped usher in modern democracy and eventually the corporation, but they still suffered the same ills prior organizational structures like the church or the kingdom did. "Platforms" will not make the bad parts of human nature go away.

dkarl 18y ago

"a constitution of sorts for your users" When your users are trying to build businesses, they'll eventually realize they need demand a binding statement of reasonable terms, i.e., a contract. The system only scales if all the users accept one contract, or minor variations on a single contract. Therefore, a constitution is a brilliant idea. The idea will encounter resistance because it contradicts two related biases that were ingrained during the early years of the web. First, the contract accepted by all users is a EULA (which eliminates all rights and guarantees no matter what the consumer thinks), not a contract (which attempts to specify a reasonable relationship acceptable to both parties). Second, people using a web site are consumers (who must be screwed blatantly and thoroughly) rather than business partners (who must be screwed subtly, if at all). I would love to see these two assumptions challenged.

mindslight 18y ago
For those building business, there's money changing hands, and I think equitable contracts will spring up sooner - Google's recent snafus come to mind as examples of what happens when income streams are subject to "as-is" terms. But for free services, "as-is" agreements will always reign supreme. The ability to sue a company for violating said agreement is not worth much to a user, while creating a huge aggregate liability for the company. The way to give users rights is through technical means - export functionality and interoperability create well-defined capabilities that users can easily understand and exercise.