decentralization matters to the regular user: it is very much exhausting to keep several identities and keep them synced. on this site for these people and on that site for those friends. like we aren’t on a one global network, but several not connected worlds.
we had to underestimate what may internet become, and invent rss/openid much earlier, this had to be the foundation of internet, just like smtp was. may be rss/openid is not enough.
even if one chooses photo hosting service, she could choose one, and follow friends on the other services, because all services would provide generic interfaces to exchange the data. and that would lead us to the real competition - where every service has equal opportunities, but must work hard on be a better service.
because otherwise the user will get it’s data and move to other service! and this is what i call a true competition.
now we already lost this. :/ may be something new, in addition or instead of rss/openid will make a change. some new technology, which will define interfaces for data exchange.
#internet #decentralization #web #openid #rss #identity #competition
Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.
http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
#paul_graham #religion #politics #internet #discussions #identity
