Re: Congratulations!

On 12/16/23 06:54, Evan Prodromou wrote:
> This list is for the W3C community group developing the standards for an 
> open social web. We follow the Positive Work Environment rules of the W3C.
> 
> https://www.w3.org/Consortium/cepc/
> 
> This remark is not acceptable. You're insulting our member from Meta; 
> you're also insulting the integrity of everyone else working on the 
> ActivityPub standards, here and elsewhere.
> 
> In standards development, we collaborate on the specifications and 
> compete on implementation. Rivalries stop at the door.
> 
> Evan
> 
> On 2023-12-15 1:33 p.m., O'Brien, Sean wrote:
>> Embrace, extend, extinguish.
>

I'm sorry Evan, but I cannot see this statement as an insult. I read it 
as a legitimate political concern that many share, and that follows a 
consistent pattern that we've witnessed many times across various 
successful internet protocols. Dismissing this concern as an insult is 
not going to help address the problem.

If this mailing list is not willing to discuss politics, the Fediverse 
is. The SocialHub also welcomes political concerns.

I think that your final sentence, as much as it may sound fair, is 
politically immature, not to say entirely naive. The good company of 
gentlemen never prevented power relations at play. This is probably why 
there is a W3C sponsored list, and a grassroots movement. You won't be 
able to silence the grassroots.

Developers make their own choices when it comes to whom they want to 
federate with, and maybe it's time to discuss what it means to live in a 
digital world that is not unique and imposed from above by 
self-appointed asymmetric powers. The rough consensus that brought the 
running code powering ActivityPub today came from refusing the terms of 
service of surveillance capitalists such as the main sponsors of W3C, 
including Meta -- this is not an insult, simply a state of fact. The 
fact such companies now embrace the standards mean the standards did 
good so far to offer a solid alternative to their prying services: it 
does not mean that we have solved the underlying political struggle for 
freedom from interference for online communication.

On the matter of interoperability, interconnection, and consent, petites 
singularités published a short statement a couple of years ago, in 
anticipation to this very moment.

https://public.zoethical.org/pub/what-is-at-stake-with-interoperability

==
hk

Received on Thursday, 21 December 2023 15:43:49 UTC