SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the "father" of the World Wide Web, has said what many are likely feeling: the centralisation of the network has gone too far and it's time to consider breaking up the behemoths that dominate it to the extent of locking out new players.
The Register has more here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/01/tim_berners_lee_internet_giants/
The source, TBL's interview with Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-technology-www/father-of-web-says-tech-giants-may-have-to-be-split-up-idUSKCN1N63MV (don't follow the Register link which is wrong).
Excerpt:
“What naturally happens is you end up with one company dominating the field so through history there is no alternative to really coming in and breaking things up,” Berners-Lee, 63, said in an interview. “There is a danger of concentration.”
But he urged caution too, saying the speed of innovation in both technology and tastes could ultimately cut some of the biggest technology companies down to size.
“Before breaking them up, we should see whether they are not just disrupted by a small player beating them out of the market, but by the market shifting, by the interest going somewhere else,” Berners-Lee said.
I'm in violent agreement with TBL, at least on the point of overcentralisation, what about you? I'd be more aggressive than his caution, perhaps, as the barrier to entry seems higher to me than him, and market shifts can be blocked or delayed by counteracting marketing tactics by the incumbents...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @07:39AM (9 children)
Rome fell, and so have many other bloody empires. WTF is a corporation in comparison to those organizations, which were driven the societal madness of glory after death?
Netflix is now in the process of unseating Hollywood; Netflix is producing movies that they'll screen first in theaters and then stream on their own surface, and their upending the traditional structures behind funding projects.
IBM created the PC. Where are they now?
Nothing lasts forever. NOTHING.
There's always a group of young men who gather together to successfully plot disruption.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @12:26PM (1 child)
The Roman empire lasted thousands of years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @12:55PM
The Roman Empire did not have the invisible hand of the market influencing its destiny. With a thumb of the scale, that invisible hand sure can change things quick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @03:57PM (1 child)
Not really.
They are merely another production company/studio with their own channel. It's just that they have appeared recently and that they have a lot of Internet money, and they hire countless millennial minions to do BS, underpaid work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @05:08PM
They're even less than that, they're a cable channel like Syfy with shitty 1st-party filler amidst a handful of decent old shows.
(Score: 3, Informative) by curunir_wolf on Friday November 02 2018, @05:44PM (2 children)
Well, they still have over $100 billion market cap, and just bought Red Hat.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @06:55PM (1 child)
Surely that's proof of the inherent evil of a corporation, especially one that provided documented support for the Nazis!!111111111
That is to say, what could your point possibly be?
(Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Sunday November 04 2018, @08:16PM
Corporations are not good or evil, dude. They are just a tool.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @06:13PM (1 child)
I have a feeling this was only small consolation to those it harmed leading up to and during its downfall...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02 2018, @06:59PM
Didn't Monty Python do a skit about this? [youtube.com]