The Three-Legged Stool: A Manifesto for a Smaller, Denser Internet
Thanks to Cory for the link.
https://publicinfrastructure.org/2023/03/29/the-three-legged-stool/
- Consists of many different platforms with a wide variety of scales and purposes;
- Users can navigate with a loyal client that aggregates, cross-posts, and curates;
- Is all supported by cross-cutting services rooted in interoperable data.
First, we propose a pluriverse consisting of existing platforms alongside a flourishing ecosystem of Very Small Online Platforms (VSOPs) that serve conversations and communities that are poorly served by today’s digital public sphere. Just as we do not exclusively gather in shopping malls in the physical world, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are not the right place for every community and conversation online. We argue the need for civic-centered VSOPs like our platform Smalltown. We highlight existing VSOPs like Letterboxd and An Archive of Our Own and discuss what it takes to develop a new VSOP, using our work on Freq, a VSOP dedicated to music discovery and discussion, as a case study.\
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Second, we sketch out a “loyal client” for navigating the digital public sphere. Akin to an email client like Apple Mail or a chat client like ICQ, our loyal client aggregates, filters, and posts to a person’s various social media feeds, be those VSOPs or established platforms like Twitter or Reddit. Such a tool depends on people being able to delegate authority to a loyal client, which comes with challenges related to privacy, adoption, and usability.\
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Third, we introduce the “friendly neighborhood algorithm store.” This is a marketplace that VSOPs and loyal clients can rely on for curation and Trust & Safety, tools which no single VSOP or loyal client could develop on their own, and which large platforms have developed over decades with significant resources. These include recommender systems, spam detection, anti-abuse tools, and powerful filters for CSAM and terrorist content.
PDF https://publicinfrastructure.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/The-Three-Legged-Stool-by-Chand-Rajendra-Nicolucci-Michael-Sugarman-and-Ethan-Zuckerman-iDPI-UMass.pdf
HTML https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ral-dsAcl_CjY0QZrELq4yWigq4rT3UB/view
I think it's important that alternative webs be simple at the protocol level so that many, many developers can reasonably quickly develop their own client and server software. Also, complexity is the enemy of security.
