Tim Berners-LeeThank you to The Observer for this thoughtful review.
“Berners-Lee is clear-eyed about the benefits and the dangers. This Is for Everyone contains some very sharp thinking about what we need to do now.”
We must fight for the web we want.
Karl Auerbach@timbl I am wary that too many of us use "internet" as a noun without defining what that noun means.
To many of us who were building the net in the 1965-1995 period we see "internet" as a packet switching system that moves IP packets from hither to yon.
These days many people think "internet" means a collection of applications that interwork (to a degree) with one another, without regard for the underlying means of data transport, much less whether that mode is elegant or a jury rigged tangle.
It is my assertion that we can't really talk about internet policies or health without first defining what we mean by "internet".
Our policies and concerns about the packet switching mesh are different than our policies and concerns about webs of interoperating applications.
(And I will, of course, remind people that our growing walls of security, although good, are at the same time making it harder for us to manage the net to detect problems, isolate those problems, and deploy repairs.)
FinchHaven sfbaI've thought for quite a while that Doctorow or someone needs to update "enshitification" and rebrand it as "enappification"
People simply have no concept of the Internet as transport between autonomous destinations
Everything is "an app" "for that" on their phones
And too much very bad mischief is simply one fat-fingered mis-tap away from identity theft and device compromise
I could go on and on, but an entire generation is simply lost and vulnerable sitting ducks
cc @timbl
Flic@FinchHaven @karlauerbach @timbl the basic concepts of even a web address or a file location are getting further from everyday understanding all the time. Everything is via app or QR code. It's pretty difficult to access the file system on my android, even to find something I downloaded.
@FinchHaven @karlauerbach @timbl and of course you have to bypass all sorts of popups and redirects to the app store to access things like Facebook messenger or TikTok without the app - because where's the fun in providing a service if you can't scrape data off everyone's phones while you do it?!