Archive for September, 2008

If you don’t already read it, the Technology Liberation Front is among the best blogs on technology policy. While I may not agree with each individual author on this group blog, they are all deep thinkers on the intersection of technology and policy. Today, Adam Thierer wrote a post I had been rolling around in my head for a couple weeks: a survey of the recent books on the Internet and its effects.

As the Internet continues through its second decade of popularity, a number of important books have been published examining its nature, proper role and effects upon society. As Adam notes, most of these books fall neatly within two categories: Internet optimists and Internet pessimists. Among the former are Chris Anderson, Yochai Benkler and Clay Shirky. These authors often debate the pessimists like Nick Carr, Andrew Keen and Lee Siegal. Unfortunately, the debate often devolves into a black-and-white conflict between Luddites and techno-utopianists. Thankfully, Adam adds some necessary nuance to the debate saying, “each model or mode of production has its place and purpose and they will continue to co-exist going forward, albeit in serious tension at times.” The lower transaction costs made possible by the Internet mean that different modes of production are made possible, but it would be silly to believe they will be triumphant in all regards.

Personally, I’m slightly embarrassed that I’ve not read many of the pessimists, but from the reviews, it seems they are not worth the time – although I heartily recommend Carr and his blog. Beyond the books summarized in the TLF post, there are other works which seem to fall somewhere between the categories of techno optimism and pessimism. For example, I think Cass Sunstein’s “Infotopia” (reviewed here) lays out both benefits and critiques in a reasoned manner. Jonathan Zittrain’s new book, “The Future of the Internet” (reviewed here), is not optimistic about the future, but not because he doesn’t support the technological optimists – he’s pessimistic because the pessimists who want more control and order may be winning. In the coming months, Lessig will publish a new book called Remix where, I’m sure, he’ll add to the optimists. And finally, there is a whole host of others which should be part of the list including David Weinberger’s “Everything is Misscelaneous,” Daniel Solove’s “The Future of Reputation” and John Palfrey’s new “Born Digital.”

What’s on your shelf of technology policy books?

During the tragic post-election violence in Kenya late last year, a couple of technologists with ties to Kenya created Ushahidi, an innovative web service that allows witnesses to report crisis news from their mobile phone or computer. From the Swahili word for “testimony,” this non-profit has created a platform which allows for the crowdsourcing of reporting. It has already been proven useful in South Africa to track anti-immigration violence, and I’m sure sundry other uses will pop up.

I’m really excited for the possibilities this opens up. Ushahidi was an important tool for making the crisis in Kenya more transparent and capitalizes on the mobile penetration in Africa. Allowing more people to have the ability to express what they see is an important goal and Ushahidi is doing so in an open-source way which will make this as accessible as possible to all. Congratulations to the team!

As you’ve probably heard, Google is releasing an Internet browser called Chrome. It’s an early product, but has some innovative features which will make it a compelling product for many. As others have pointed out, Chrome is much more indicative of an attack on Microsoft Windows than other browsers. If it is successful, as I imagine it will be if Google decides to promote it heavily, then it has a number of important implications not the least of which is the concerns about privacy.

Another question is the future of computing freedom. GNU, the project that started free software, is turning 25 years old, but in some ways, the specific goal of a free operating system is outdated. The move towards cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) means that more and more computing is done through the browser. In fact, as Nick Carr points out, Chrome represents Google’s effort to improve the browser. The end goal, it seems, is to replace Windows and Mac OS X with lightweight, browser-based computers. The day when computers are sold with only a browser is near; traditional programs – downloaded and installed locally – are quickly being replaced by online versions. If the browser is the OS, does Chrome (and Firefox), both free, open source browsers, represent the culmination of the goal of free software advocates?

I’m afraid not. In place of one proprietary set of code, network services provide many more. Hosting photos on Flickr? Using Gmail? Posting to Twitter? Connecting on Facebook? These services all lock in data to some extent. Tinkering is limited so customization falters. As Tim O’Reilly wrote a while back,

“Take note: All of the platform as a service plays, from Amazon’s S3 and EC2 and Google’s AppEngine to Salesforce’s force.com — not to mention Facebook’s social networking platform — have a lot more in common with AOL than they do with internet services as we’ve known them over the past decade and a half. Will we have to spend a decade backtracking from centralized approaches?”

Luckily a group of developers and activists are pushing back against this dependency on third-party lock-in. Blogging at autonomo.us these smart folks are raising the red flag and in the case of Identi.ca, creating more open services to compete with proprietary leaders. Evan Prodromou is the creator of identi.ca, a micro-blogging service which embraces computing freedom to an extent Twitter does not. Unfortunately, the network effects in play make Identi.ca a difficult success story.

So, as you try out Google Chrome, an admittedly exciting product (if it were for Mac…), keep in mind that the sites you are visiting do not embrace the same ethic as Chrome or GNU – they are the new digital silos.

Update: Thanks to Greg Grossmeier, I see another examples of a free network service – Tiny Tiny RSS is an RSS Reader like Google Reader, but it is open source and self-hosted. Check out Greg’s post about the site.