Maury Postal

Soup: The Death of Platforms

soupsoup:

“People want to be a part of these communities, so perhaps that is more valuable to them than owning their content completely. I wonder though, if given the choice to have their own place on the web, owned entirely by them, interconnected by a way to “reblog” each other in the cloud, a cloud that nobody owns, if enough people would take it?”

Very interesting. I think at the end of the day, to the average person, the concern will not so much reside in where the data is stored or who owns it—but the evolution of authorship, attribution and control.

In the same way people prefer to rent an apartment rather than own a condo—the benefits of property ownership often times don’t outweigh the costs unless the person plans to be in the game for the long-term. I don’t think most people associate the web, especially the active content creating part of it, long-term. They view each image, video, and character as an ephemeral means to a larger understanding—one possibly so large they can’t see the point at which it connects.

There will be a select group of landlords who do see the long-term picture—much like Google purchasing dark fiber to create an alternative “open” Internet (eventually?). These landlords will happily look after your piece of the Internet, absorbing some of the risk and maintenance in exchange for a small fee. I feel like these “landlords” would be a more human version of a hosting provider—someone who understands that most people, even advanced users, never really need to see a c-panel. If hosting companies rebranded themselves as such—interwoven, manageable, and tangible pieces of your digital existence, I imagine this idea would catch on.

Source: soupsoup