2.1 KiB
#infos
auth-name : holger krekel tag : decentralization, edges, questions
advance costs : N
need room : Y
Location : Freiburg, Germany
Can host ppl : na
Secession from the broadcast
It's time to travel to the edges because this is where the interesting stuff happens. "What is popular" is rarely a question that helps finding edges. I'd like to recap what i learned in 15 months of my re-juvenated and re-energized quest into decentralization and what it might mean.
For one, I'd like to forward a question from Gene Youngblood's [Secession from the broadcast lecture][1]: "how can we create on the same scale as we can destroy?". Gene suggests we need to move away from the "audience nation" by becoming "political actors" instead of "interested spectators of action".
Second, I paraphrase a thought from Adam Ierymenko's [I want to believe][2]: If full decentralization is technically too hard currently, can we construct and make use of a "Blind Idiot God" (BIG) instance which co-ordinates some communication but can not abuse it or even understand what's going on precisely?
Lastly, I wonder how can we create sustained systems and services if we don't want the centralized web service cash cow control model? As Laura Kolbag [3] pointed out recently in Nuernberg, paying for software might not be so bad if the "free to use" models mean surveillance and centralized control. And she notes that design and useability should drive open source developments instead of features and options.
The edges are where we encounter the others, those who are somehow unlike. It's a place where i easily run into fears and look for friends. At the edges there is no central authority suggesting what to think or do next. And the number of people at the edges is always lower than in the center. But that's fine, this is how things get moving as i've experienced myself a number of times now.
[2] http://adamierymenko.com/decentralization-i-want-to-believe/