Re: <nettime> Nettime is in bad shape. Let's see if we can change it.

[Geoffrey Goodell <goodell@oxonia.net>]

On Sun, Jul 07, 2019 at 05:08:12AM -0700, John Preston wrote:
> To give an example, say someone was organising some direct action. There
> are some communications tools like maybe Signal, that should provide
> privacy and the basic utility of instant messaging. But consider if we
> want a tool like Doodle (group scheduling, https://doodle.com/ ). Unless
> someone has build a 'secure Doodle', there is no way that 99% of users
> could slot this in to their use case. Instead, if a computing platform
> is simple enough, you could say "oh I'll just wrap the Doodle component
> in our Signal channel" or something, there should be obvious ways to
> compose everything within the system, and that needs to be part of the
> user experience.

Hi John,

I would suggest that we need to be careful here.  Signal and Doodle are not
tools.  They are services provided by specific organisations.

Somewhere along the line we as a culture have forgotten the distinction between
'technology' and 'services'.  A 'technology' is really just a method or system
for applying knowledge to a problem; any individual or business could choose to
implement (or commission, or lease, or purchase outright) that technology
independently and control it completely.  A 'service', on the other hand, might
use technology, but individuals and businesses who use such services do not own
or control that technology directly.

Many cultures have chosen to protect innovators who develop technologies.
Patents are an example of such protection.  However, the justification for the
protection is that any individuals or businesses with sufficient resources
could choose to implement such technologies after their underlying science and
designs are made public.  That justification does not apply to services,
although for some reason a narrative has persisted that innovators who
develop services also deserve public protection.  They do not.

Yes, it certainly costs less to build systems from serviecs rather than from
technologies; this is because the businesses who collect rents (and other
benefits such as data brokerage fees) from operating services can subsidise the
costs.  But this does not serve the public interest.

Best wishes --

Geoff
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