The Augmented Social Network: Building identity and trust into the next-generation Internet by Ken Jordan, Jan Hauser, and Steven Foster: nothing has changed, the internet is still at a cross roads
Pontifications
- The Augmented Social Network: Building identity and trust into the next-generation Internet by Ken Jordan, Jan Hauser, and Steven Foster
- We forgot about bots and automated influencing back in 2003. Nobody saw that coming! We thought it would be commercial interests not state actors that would pervert the internet!
- Indeed, though nothing has changed the internet is still at a cross-roads
QUOTE
Not to over-simplify a complex issue, but the Internet is at a crossroads and has to choose which path to take, what kinds of interactivity to allow. For example, will people on the Net be able to distribute video from their own computers? Will people in Russia have access to U.S. blogs? Will peer-to-peer interactions be permissible, or might they be strictly limited? Decisions are being made today about what behavior will be allowed online tomorrow. No less important than the above examples are the questions: How will each individual be represented online, and how will this effect the way people are able to meet each other and organize on the Net? Will the "next generation" online community serve only commercial interests, or will it also contribute to the public good? If the public interest sector does not act now, these questions will be answered for us, and a tremendous opportunity to reinvigorate democracy may be lost.
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