Back in the USSR
Posted by goodmind on June 4th, 2008
We like to think that ten years from now, the incessant stream of mergers, acquisitions, hostile takeovers, new technologies, revolutionary web platforms, and all the other RSS feed effluvia, will be ironed out into the *new* internet. Web 7.113 will be a seamless interface, enhancing productivity, communication, and due diligence, at least in our Utopian prophecy.
Chris Messina has a more political vision of how this future will pan out, described in his post on Facebook, the USSR, communism and train racks. It’s basically about how the borders of social networks will drastically evolve as the landscape of the web continues to change until the Microsoft of web standards emerges.
The key point is that Facebook is perhaps forcing the issue, by trying to make its platform the standard for developers. However, Facebook is not trying to harness the creative benefits of an open source API, they’re trying to keep users, and their valuable data, within the network…much like the Soviets did with their proprietary train track specifications back in the day.
We recommend reading the entire post, as it is quite insightful in addition to being well written. The money quote;
“Look, if Martin Luther had nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door but had ensconced them in DRM, he would not have been as effective at bringing about the Reformation.”
(via Scobleizer)
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