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Veteran author and longtime Silicon Valley resident Andrew Keen has stepped up his criticisms of the Internet. Describing the net as a platform that has devolved from its initial ideals and promise into a vehicle of monopolistic, manipulative and exploitative practices, a Guardian article summarizes views now gaining traction. By using Amazon, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber or any other online giant, are we striking a Faustian pact, behind which lays a mass of suffering, surveillance and ruthless harvesting?
Keen supports his arguments by mentioning that even online businesses that cite individual collaboration, those of the 'sharing' economy, are mere cynical fronts for firms already valued in the billions. As money has been sucked out of retail, transportation, photography, research and other industries into the coffers of new Internet giants, the net result has been losses of jobs and the compromise of working conditions. As for the Internet's much-touted 'individual empowerment', Keen counters with the rise of mob mentality - “Rather than creating more democracy, it’s empowering the rule of the mob. Rather than encouraging tolerance, it’s unleashed such a distasteful war on women that many no longer feel welcome on the network". Keen's book - The Internet is not the Answer - is, a touch ironically, available on Amazon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11 2015, @12:54AM
I read a good article the other week about how truly democratic that ancient city-state was and how the USA's founding fathers had turned the notion into an oligarchy (by specifying a republic with a tiny number of individuals who form the actual inner circle).
N.B. I'll add that the Citizens United SCOTUS decision was the coup de grace.
What would it be like if we really lived in a democracy? [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [dissidentvoice.org]
...and, getting back on the original topic, most online places are a dictatorship where you can get banned/deleted on the whim of 1 guy.
The paywall'd and members-only-even-to-read sites are a meme all their own.
At other online places with comments, it's more of an anarchy ("without rulers"), bordering on the common (but incorrect) connotation of that word: "chaos".
None of those is democratic to my way of thinking.
The Slashcode mod system is the most democratic meme I've seen, specifically the recent S/N update that includes a no-points-off Disagree moderation.
...and a big High 5 to the guy that made sure Slashcode offered a threaded presentation; I HATE flat forum presentations.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 11 2015, @02:15PM
First, gewg_, if you sign your posts, why bother to post as Anonymous Coward? It doesn't make sense.
But I do agree that the Slashcode mod system is the best way I've yet seen to boost the signal-to-noise ratio. For me it supplants Robert's Rules of Order, which is the nah-nah-nah tyranny of lawyers from the 17th century that persists to this day among those of that ilk, and MUNUC enthusiasts.
There is still room for improvement on Slashcode. One that occurs to me is to borrow an idea from hackathons, whereby you post your project idea, the kinds of help you need, and have functionality whereby people can pile on with you. It doesn't really work so well with hackathons because those mostly tend to be one-off affairs, but here it could work brilliantly. It's also a more structured version of what Linus did originally when he asked people to help him build Linux; that turned out pretty well and I think many other excellent projects could likewise develop here.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 11 2015, @03:35PM
N.B. I'll add that the Citizens United SCOTUS decision was the coup de grace.
It's just a natural defense of the First Amendment. The rule of law doesn't always swing your way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11 2015, @09:29PM
First Amendment
A supermajority of Americans disagree with that position.
If you were to poll a group of USAians, I'm pretty sure the numbers would come out with about 97 percent saying "Money is not speech; corporations are not people."
The rule of law doesn't always swing your way
True--in the short run.
Dred Scott (1854)
The black man has "no rights that the white man is bound to respect".
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
"separate but equal"
Brown v Board (1954)
"separate is inherently unequal"
Bad Supreme Court majorities come and bad Supreme Court majorities go.
...and people need to remember what happened in France in 1789 when the system had become so lopsided and unfair.
-- gewg_