benwerd

It's interesting to think about what global public media might look like. Does Wikipedia offer a decent model?

The trick is balancing public-service operations with the ability to make quick decisions and maintain a user-centered design. Many open source projects go off the rails by adding too many layers of bureaucracy, and it's important that something like this is able to react quickly and compete with non-public versions. (How the BBC competes with ITV in the UK is analogous: the quality and finger on the cultural pulse is at least as good.)

I think the time is right for someone to try this. The question is, who, and where does the initial funding come from?

(Maybe it can come from Ev?)

ActivityPub is awesome, and I'm excited that it's reached this stage. Looking forward to the core Known platform supporting it.

It's incredibly depressing if true. The labor movement gave us weekends and the 8 hour day. While not every union is positive, unions as a concept are the natural counterbalance to business interests, protecting individual worker rights.

I wonder, though, if it's simply a matter of modernization. What would a 21st century union look like? Are there examples to look to?

I just bought The Story Grid off the back of this recommendation. Thanks!

How does this compare to Howdy?

Or at the very least, available to the safety testers! https://medium.com/building-an-open-startup/untestable-unsaf...

This would actually be a brilliant solution. Pledge to release the source code in an installable form (code is useless unless you can run it) if the company becomes insolvent or otherwise stops trading. Ensure data can be migrated. Then, in the meantime, provide the best service possible.

Mark my words: bots are the new email newsletters.

Discovery is crucial.

A social network can be thought of as a kind of search engine: you're trying to find people, posts and resources that are relevant to your interests.

On the other hand, a social communication app works by allowing you to connect to your existing friends. So for example, with an app like Peach, finding new people or searching for posts matters less.

The really hard question for the first case is: how do you combine searchability with end-to-end encryption?

Hello! I've created two open source projects (elgg.org and withknown.com). I'd advise you to wait.

Also, I wrote a long post about open source businesses. http://werd.io/2015/open-issues-lessons-learned-building-an-...

And here's a different take, from Lightspeed Ventures. http://venturebeat.stfi.re/2015/12/06/its-actually-open-sour...

Note that we both argue against a support model. That's a very difficult, unscalable model. Instead, I encourage you to think of your hosted version as the primary, main version of what you do, and the open source version as something that you also release. And remember to hold something back for enterprise open source customers who need something more.

I don't think this is a realistic request on the modern web - particularly when it comes to JavaScript code, even if it's a technically accurate interpretation of how JS is transmitted and executed. (Licensing is an interesting thing to think about here.)

But hey, for what it's worth, every piece of JavaScript we run is free software compatible. Hooray! https://github.com/idno/known

That's a very libertarian point of view. Has it been shown to work in practice over an extended time? I know that in the US growth was stronger with higher taxation.

I don't believe progressive taxation is discriminatory. The more you earn, the more the marginal utility of each additional dollar you earn is reduced. Progressive taxation recognizes this, and therefore eases survival burdens on lower income workers - who are necessary for any capitalist economy to function - while continuing to allow higher earners to become wealthy. It's a good system.

I don't think it's robbery unless you don't participate in the state. If you're using roads, education, the police, fire departments and all of the other infrastructure and innate protections you get from the state, then, yes, you should contribute.

If you really are an island with no interaction with the outside world, fair enough. But then you have other problems.

This needs to happen.

Not only do removing tuition fees or enacting universal healthcare remove systemic inequalities, they actually make everyone wealthier. We will have a stronger economy if we take care of the social infrastructure we need. These measures lead to growth.

Imagine a world where a startup entrepreneur doesn't have to be terrified of their health insurance status - it's the same one where a working class family isn't bankrupted by illness. Imagine a more highly educated workforce with more potential hires domestically - it's the same one where a high school graduate can afford to be the first person in their family to get an education. The things that help the poorest in society help all of us. Even if you don't care about what happens to poorer members of your community, you can rest easy in the knowledge that these things benefit you. Social infrastructure works.

The only detrimental effect this would have is that the very richest people don't get to keep quite as much money, on the face of it. But they would make more money overall.

I would like to see a fairer America, where more people have opportunities, and fewer people are living harsh poverty conditions. It's exciting to see these topics finally get the air time they deserve.

I agree with you, but also: right now Facebook is effectively the main web browser for millions and millions of people. Even without Internet.org, those 50 websites are all a lot of people see. How can we change this model in a realistic, attractive, non-techno-utopian way?

(Also, in light of Internet.org, Instant Articles seem like a pretty democratic thing to do - bringing external content that would otherwise be blocked into this context.)

This is the most political open source project I've seen in a while. I love the idea that it's designed to sit inside a progressive society where we all agree we have a social contract to the state. That is very different to a lot of similar efforts, and at the very least it's an important part of the discussion.

Right now it's vaporware, but I'm very interested in its release. I'd love to help give it a friendly face and integrate it with existing open source social platforms, to make it easier to send and receive money regardless of your technical ability.

In my experience a lot of firms don't necessarily want direct support - but they may want an SLA.

The nature of the open source market has changed, and I've found that most people conflate free as in speech with free as in beer. As a result, people are picking up open source projects specifically because there's no cost involved, making support - or any kind of license or subscription - a very tough sell.

The only predictable way of selling services on top of an open project I've found has been to hold a piece back and make it commercial, which I think cuts against the principle of the thing. Nonetheless, eating and paying rent are important, so that's the way it goes.

One-off customizations are another matter, but the expectation is that because you gave away your code to begin with, you're going to work for a below-market hourly rate.

Disclosure: I've cofounded two end-user open source projects (elgg.org and withknown.com). At this point I could not be more jaded. It's possible the dynamics are different for infrastructure projects, but the state of OpenSSL et al suggest not.

This is cute. I'm going to write a Known plugin and test it out on withknown.com.

I admit to loosely using the "mobile clients are specialist browsers" line of thinking here. Facebook definitely uses links and HTTP.

Which means at least as many people used the web. Good going, Internet!

There is a one-click solution: https://withknown.com/

That is exactly the point.

If a profile gets censored / targeted, it's one profile, vs an entire social network. But, eg, content being replied to is typically duplicated across profiles, so there actually is distribution of content.

If you're just looking for somewhere to post some content, we run an indieweb-compatible service: https://withknown.com ;)

It's about not having control over your representation online. For me, it's also about freedom of identity, and freedom to dictate your own content standards.

Diaspora is one product, whereas the indie web is a set of really lightweight technologies that allow you to join in from virtually any website. It's not dependent on any one vendor or project.

I think the coolest bit is that each of the pieces is so simple that a coder can get up and running from scratch in an afternoon. That's very different to a lot of the federated social web technologies to date.

The indieweb is a social web where everyone runs their own profile, on their own (sub)domain, potentially on their own servers - while being able to talk to their friends as easily as they could on Facebook or Twitter.

All based on open technologies, rough consensus, user-centered design and running code, rather than endless mailing lists and technical debate.

People are also working on that. The full stack needs an upgrade, and it's nice to see that happening across the board.

It's more than blog + XFN + pingbacks. The combination of technologies really does allow for decentralized social activities (not just replies), potentially in real-time.

If you don't want to mess with a server, we started an indieweb platform at https://withknown.com. You can always take all your data and move to your own server later on.

There are some pretty good proposals about spam. So far it hasn't been a problem, but it's good to have tools in place.

We're working on that. :)

It's probably inexperience. I'd try and talk them up a bit.

But other commenters are right: pay attention to the salary, the benefits and the position itself. The equity is a lottery ticket. I do believe they should correct the amount to make you feel valued, but that's the only reason.