{"id":74173,"date":"2024-09-18T00:10:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T04:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=74173"},"modified":"2024-09-18T00:10:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T04:10:18","slug":"have-you-heard-of-the-open-source-internet-the-antidote-to-a-capitalist-web-already-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/have-you-heard-of-the-open-source-internet-the-antidote-to-a-capitalist-web-already-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"Have you heard of the open source internet? The antidote to a capitalist web already exists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the early days of the internet, famously,\u00a0no one knew if you were a dog<\/a>. The internet was a place where you could be anyone.<\/p>\n

More importantly, it was also a place where you could find anything: that rare book, or the perfect pair of neon-pink tights, or a community for your unusual health condition. The underlying model of the internet was that it was decentralised, and everyone had the right to have a voice \u2013 even dogs.<\/p>\n

Marketers realised they could use the internet to make money, but no one had figured out how yet. The original search engine included an index of all the pages on the web: you could literally browse the whole web if you were so inclined.<\/p>\n

For those of us who were there, it was like the coolest club going, only everyone there was an oddball, nerd or another kind of outcast. Like all the best clubs, though, the internet didn\u2019t stay exclusive. Marketers did work out how to use it to sell things (mostly pornography in the early days<\/a>), and the internet became a fact of life rather than a niche interest.<\/p>\n

From consolidation to \u2018enshittification\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In the early 2000s, we saw another phenomenon: consolidation.<\/p>\n

Facebook, through its links to the US college experience, became the place to connect with friends. Amazon, through its distribution network, became the place to buy \u2026 well, everything. Google was\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0source of information, and used this position to become the default source of information in browsers and mobile phones.<\/p>\n

Initially, this consolidation happened because these tools were great for the people who used them. Then the tools became less great for end users, and instead became great for the people who sold things on them (advertisers, mostly).<\/p>\n

However, people kept using the tools because the cost of switching was high, or there was no viable alternative.<\/p>\n

Finally, these products have become great for people who own them, and not great for anyone else. The competition has also been squeezed out. The most fitting term for this process is \u201censhittification<\/a>\u201d, coined by author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow. It is rife across digital products as diverse as ridesharing, streaming services and search engines.<\/p>\n

So now, instead of connecting with friends, finding unique products or having the information of the world at your fingertips, the internet is a shopping mall advertising the same poor-quality products everywhere.<\/p>\n