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Add "Did we borrow the wrong assumptions?" and move headings
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README.org
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README.org
@ -208,19 +208,6 @@ If the problem is users receiving unwanted messages, perhaps the
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solution comes in making intentional social connections.
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solution comes in making intentional social connections.
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But how can we get from here to there?
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But how can we get from here to there?
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** Did we borrow the wrong assumptions?
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#+BEGIN_QUOTE
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"What if we're making the wrong assumptions about our social networks?
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What if we're focusing on breadth, when we really should be focusing
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on depth?"
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-- from a conversation with Evan Prodromou, initial designer of
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both ActivityPub and OStatus' protcol designs
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#+END_QUOTE
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# - social networks: breadth vs depth?
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# - wholesale borrowing of surveillance capitalist assumptions
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** Freedom of speech also means freedom to filter
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** Freedom of speech also means freedom to filter
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** Don't pretend we can prevent what we can't
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** Don't pretend we can prevent what we can't
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@ -232,6 +219,63 @@ But how can we get from here to there?
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#
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#
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** Did we borrow the wrong assumptions?
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#+BEGIN_QUOTE
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"What if we're making the wrong assumptions about our social networks?
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What if we're focusing on breadth, when we really should be focusing
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on depth?"
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-- from a conversation with Evan Prodromou, initial designer of
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both ActivityPub and OStatus' protcol designs
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#+END_QUOTE
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What is Evan trying to say here?
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Most contemporary social networks are run by surveillance capitalist
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organizations; in other words, their business model is based on as much
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"attention" as possible as they can sell to advertisers.
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Whether or not capitalism is a problem is left as an exercise for the
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reader, but hopefully most readers will agree that a business model
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based on destroying privacy can lead to undesirable outcomes.
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One such undesirable outcome is that these companies subtly affect the
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way people interact with each other not dependent on what is
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healthiest for people and their social relationships, but based on what
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will generate the most advertising revenue.
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One egregious example of this is the prominence of the "follower
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count" in contemporary social networks, particularly Twitter.
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When visiting another user's profile, even someone who is aware of and
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dislikes its effect will have trouble not comparing follower counts
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and mentally using this as a value judgement, either about the other
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person or about themselves.
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Users are subconsciously tricked into playing a popularity contest,
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whether they want to play that game or not.
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Rather than being encouraged to develop a network of meaningful
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relationships with which they have meaningful communications, users
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face a subconscious pressure to tailor their messaging and even who
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else they follow to maximize their follower count.
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So why on earth would we see follower counts also appear prominently
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on the federated social web, if these tools are generally built by
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teams that do not benefit from the same advertising structure?
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The answer is simple: it is what developers and users are both
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familiar with.
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This is not an accusation; in fact, it is a highly sympathetic
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position to take: the cost, for developers and users alike, of
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developing a system is lower by going with the familiar rather than
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researching the ideal.
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But the consequences may nonetheless be severe.
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So it is too with how we build our notion of security and
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authorization, which developers tend to mimic from the systems they
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have already seen.
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Why wouldn't they?
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But it may be that these patterns are, in fact, anti-patterns.
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It may be time for some re-evaluation.
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# - social networks: breadth vs depth?
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# - wholesale borrowing of surveillance capitalist assumptions
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** Anti-solutions
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** Anti-solutions
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(Note that things in the anti-solutions category aren't necessarily
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(Note that things in the anti-solutions category aren't necessarily
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