4 ms·

Is there any reason why we can't design a federated (non-centralized) version of twitter that doesn't depend on a business model of monetization? Every ad I see

by plg 12y ago

Is there any reason why we can't design a federated (non-centralized) version of twitter that doesn't depend on a business model of monetization? Every ad I see on twitter contributes to (what I assume is) my eventual abandonment of the service.

kaoD 12y ago
BitChirp[0] is a Twitter clone using BitMessage's infrastructure (though I'm not sure if BitMessage could ever handle Twitter's scale). Also Twister[1] based on BitTorrent + a blockchain for user registration. But of course these will never take over Twitter's kingdom. [0] https://bitchirp.org/ https://bitchirp.org/ [1] http://twister.net.co/ http://twister.net.co/
frostmatthew 12y ago
> Is there any reason why we can't design a federated (non-centralized) version of twitter that doesn't depend on a business model of monetization? Another alternative would be a business model that doesn't include advertising. App.net[1] attempted this, but clearly that didn't work out too well. [1] https://alpha.app.net/ https://alpha.app.net/
ef4 12y ago
There's no fundamental reason. I think the internet swings back and forth between periods of openness and periods of walled gardens. We're in a walled garden period. My gut says it won't last forever. Our current walled gardens succeeded by refining the user experience of the open web they supplanted. They made it easy for normal users to do the things that only advanced users were able to do before: easily publish your own stream of content, find other people's content you care about, aggregate other people's content, and then let everybody generate new content that references the previous content. None of that is new functionality, but Facebook and Twitter fixed the user experience and taught normal people how to do all of that. But now that the bar has been raised and the average user groks the benefits of "social networking", there's nothing to stop the technology from eventually being commoditized. As for business models, a decentralized competitor doesn't actually need a business model, because their infrastructural costs could be zero. "HTTP" doesn't have or need a business model.
dublinben 12y ago
Pump.io is a federated microblogging platform that can be used today. You can sign up for a free account on several servers, like Identi.ca or Microca.st.

by plg 12y ago

kaoD 12y ago

BitChirp[0] is a Twitter clone using BitMessage's infrastructure (though I'm not sure if BitMessage could ever handle Twitter's scale). Also Twister[1] based on BitTorrent + a blockchain for user registration. But of course these will never take over Twitter's kingdom. [0] https://bitchirp.org/ https://bitchirp.org/ [1] http://twister.net.co/ http://twister.net.co/

frostmatthew 12y ago

> Is there any reason why we can't design a federated (non-centralized) version of twitter that doesn't depend on a business model of monetization? Another alternative would be a business model that doesn't include advertising. App.net[1] attempted this, but clearly that didn't work out too well. [1] https://alpha.app.net/ https://alpha.app.net/

ef4 12y ago

There's no fundamental reason. I think the internet swings back and forth between periods of openness and periods of walled gardens. We're in a walled garden period. My gut says it won't last forever. Our current walled gardens succeeded by refining the user experience of the open web they supplanted. They made it easy for normal users to do the things that only advanced users were able to do before: easily publish your own stream of content, find other people's content you care about, aggregate other people's content, and then let everybody generate new content that references the previous content. None of that is new functionality, but Facebook and Twitter fixed the user experience and taught normal people how to do all of that. But now that the bar has been raised and the average user groks the benefits of "social networking", there's nothing to stop the technology from eventually being commoditized. As for business models, a decentralized competitor doesn't actually need a business model, because their infrastructural costs could be zero. "HTTP" doesn't have or need a business model.

dublinben 12y ago

Pump.io is a federated microblogging platform that can be used today. You can sign up for a free account on several servers, like Identi.ca or Microca.st.