The Web We Have to Save
The hyperlink was my currency six years ago. Stemming from the idea of the hypertext, the hyperlink provided a diversity and decentralisation that the real world lacked. The hyperlink represented the open, interconnected spirit of the world wide web — a vision that started with its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. The hyperlink was a way to abandon centralization — all the links, lines and hierarchies — and replace them with something more distributed, a system of nodes and networks.
The concept of the open Web typically is discussed in context of protocols and ISP traffic management, but I think it is important to remember that we should also consider the openness of the sites and services where we create and upload content. Most of the social media services we use today are designed to keep us from navigating away. Content within the network is favored over external links. Furthermore, it may be difficult to impossible to export your data stored within the service. Instead of leaving our data locked into someone else's platform, we should favor systems that support and encourage acces over the open Web.
In Support of Net Neutrality
It makes me very happy and proud to see Squarespace taking action on this issue.
Dreaming With Jeff
I'm very excited to see this work with Jeff Bridges go live! It's great that the donations & purchases from this will support a good cause. Enjoy!
Jammed
Finally, after hiring an Internet “health” monitoring firm, Dewey’s team discovered a chokepoint: the interconnection point in New York City. Packets traveling from NEPC’s offices to NEPC’s workers via Cogent were being lost at the moment Cogent handed those packets to Comcast and Verizon in New York City for delivery over the eyeball networks to the worker. Just two percent of packet loss can make a perceptible difference in the quality of a phone call; at the height of NEPC’s problems as many as 20% of their packets weren’t making it through, which is why the firm’s remote work ground to a halt.
Fantastic article showing what happens when ISPs are allowed to do whatever they please. It is terrible that our access to the Internet is controlled by such a small group of companies with absolutely no oversight. Internet access needs to be considered and treated as a public utility.