Decentralizing Innovation, with Techdirt's Mike Masnick
Nov 21, 2023
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Techdirt's Mike Masnick discusses the history of walled gardens, the potential of decentralized social media, and the importance of open platforms for innovation. They explore platforms like Mastodon and Blue Sky, the challenges and benefits of decentralization, and the power of custom feeds. They also highlight the significance of content endorsement and the symbiotic relationship between AI and humans in navigating social media.
The open social web has the potential to become a mainstream alternative to current walled gardens, allowing individuals to own their online relationships and interactions.
The Fediverse, a decentralized social media movement, offers alternatives to centralized platforms with platforms like Blue Sky and NoStir.
Customization and algorithmic innovation in decentralized social media platforms enable personalized content discovery and tailored content experiences for users.
Deep dives
The rise of walled gardens in social media
In the 1990s, we saw the shift from wall gardens like AOL to the open web, marking a period of innovation and growth. However, new walled gardens such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok have emerged. The question is whether the open social web will become a mainstream alternative to these existing walled gardens, allowing individuals to own their online relationships and interactions.
The emergence of decentralized social media
The podcast explores the Fediverse, a decentralized social media movement also known as decentralized social media, as a potential alternative to centralized platforms. The conversation features Mike Masnick, a journalist who wrote the influential paper 'Protocols Not Platforms' in 2015, predicting the challenges faced by today's social media landscape.
The potential of Blue Sky and NoStir
The podcast examines the potential of Blue Sky and NoStir, two platforms within the decentralized social media space. Blue Sky aims to build a protocol that enables different platforms to interoperate and fosters experimentation and creativity. NoStir takes a more decentralized approach, creating a distributed model using the ActivityPub protocol. Both platforms seek to empower users and offer alternatives to the current centralized social media landscape.
The importance of customization and algorithmic innovation
The podcast highlights the significance of customization and algorithmic innovation in decentralized social media platforms. Blue Sky's custom feed feature allows users to create and share their own algorithmically curated feeds, providing a more tailored content experience. This demonstrates the potential for personalized content discovery in decentralized social media.
The promise and challenges of decentralization
The podcast explores the promise of decentralized social media, including the potential to own and control one's online presence, freedom from centralized gatekeepers, and the potential for a diverse ecosystem of communities and ideas. However, the challenges of moderation, community dynamics, and fostering innovation in a decentralized context are also acknowledged.
In the 1990s, we saw an acceleration from walled gardens like America Online to the open web. This marked an era of exciting innovation and meteoric growth. But, over time, we witnessed the rise of a new set of walled gardens: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Is history about to repeat itself? Will the open social web become a mainstream alternative to the walled gardens we live in today? Will people own their online relationships, or will there always be a company that owns these?
Host Mike McCue and journalist Mike Masnick dig into questions like these. Mike Masnick founded the blog Techdirt in 1998 and wrote a seminal paper called “Protocols Not Platforms,” in which he predicted the scenario unfolding before our eyes today. Mike has long informed an influential audience of lawmakers, CEOs and activists. In fact, the New York Times called him “something of a Silicon Valley oracle.”
In this interview, Mike McCue checks in with Mike Masnick to see how things have gone since he wrote the paper. The two “Mike Ms” also discuss:
the first product that truly embraced some of these ideas
where Mike Masnick is spending time in the Fediverse
reasoning behind adoption: worthy platforms or just fleeing X?