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diff --git a/_posts/2021-01-14-the-web.md b/_posts/2021-01-14-the-web.md deleted file mode 100644 index 4d47a57..0000000 --- a/_posts/2021-01-14-the-web.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,239 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: >- - The Web -description: >- - What is it good for? ---- - -With the recent crisis in the US's democratic process, there's been much abuzz -in the world about social media's undoubted role in the whole debacle. The -extent to which the algorithms of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, TikTok, etc, have -played a role in the radicalization of large segments of the world's population -is one popular topic. Another is the tactics those same companies are now -employing to try and euthanize the monster they made so much ad money in -creating. - -I don't want to talk about any of that; there is more to the web than -social media. I want to talk about what the web could be, and to do that I want -to first talk about what it has been. - -## Web 1.0 - -In the 1950's computers were generally owned by large organizations like -companies, universities, and governments. They were used to compute and manage -large amounts of data, and each existed independently of the other. - -In the 60's protocols began to be developed which would allow them to -communicate over large distances, and thereby share resources (both -computational and informational). - -The funding of ARPANET by the US DoD led to the initial versions of the TCP/IP -protocol in the 70's, still used today as the backbone of virtually all internet -communication. Email also came about from ARPANET around this time. - -The 80s saw the growth of the internet across the world, as ARPANET gave way to -NSFNET. It was during this time that the domain name system we use today was -developed. At this point the internet use was still mostly for large -non-commercial organizations; there was little commercial footprint, and little -private access. The first commercially available ISP, which allowed access to -the internet from private homes via dialup, wasn't launched until 1989. - -And so we find ourselves in the year 1989, when Tim Berners-Lee (TBL) first -proposed the World-Wide Web (WWW, or "the web"). You can find the original -proposal, which is surprisingly short and non-technical, -[here](https://www.w3.org/Proposal.html). - -From reading TBL's proposal it's clear that what he was after was some mechanism -for hosting information on his machine in such a way that others could find and -view it, without it needing to be explicitly sent to them. He includes the -following under the "Applications" header: - -> The application of a universal hypertext system, once in place, will cover -> many areas such as document registration, on-line help, project documentation, -> news schemes and so on. - -But out of such a humble scope grew one of the most powerful forces of the 21st -century. By the end of 1990 TBL had written the first HTML/HTTP browser and -server. By the end of 1994 sites like IMDB, Yahoo, and Bianca's Smut Shack were -live and being accessed by consumers. The web grew that fast. - -In my view the characteristic of the web which catalyzed its adoption so quickly -was the place-ness of it. The web is not just a protocol for transferring -information, like email, but instead is a _place_ where that information lives. -Any one place could be freely linked to any other place, and so complex and -interesting relations could be formed between people and ideas. The -contributions people make on the web can reverberate farther than they would or -could in any other medium precisely because those contributions aren't tied to -some one-off event or a deteriorating piece of physical infrastructure, but are -instead given a home which is both permanent and everywhere. - -The other advantage of the web, at the time, was its simplicity. HTML was so -simple it was basically human-readable. A basic HTTP server could be implemented -as a hobby project by anyone in any language. Hosting your own website was a -relatively straightforward task which anyone with a computer and an ISP could -undertake. - -This was the environment early adopters of the web found themselves in. - -## Web 2.0 - -The infamous dot-com boom took place in 2001. I don't believe this was a failure -inherent in the principles of the web itself, but instead was a product of -people investing in a technology they didn't fully understand. The web, as it -was then, wasn't really designed with money-making in mind. It certainly allowed -for it, but that wasn't the use-case being addressed. - -But of course, in this world we live in, if there's money to be made, it will -certainly be made. - -By 2003 the phrase "Web 2.0" started popping up. I remember this. To me "Web -2.0" meant a new aesthetic on the web, complete with bubble buttons and centered -fix-width paragraph boxes. But what "Web 2.0" actually signified wasn't related -to any new technology or aesthetic. It was a new strategy for how companies -could enable use of the web by non-expert users, i.e. users who don't have the -inclination or means to host their own website. Web 2.0 was a strategy for -giving everyone a _place_ of their own on the web. - -"Web 2.0" was merely a label given to a movement which had already been in -motion for years. I think the following Wikipedia excerpt describes this period -best: - - -> In 2004, the term ["Web 2.0"] began its rise in popularity when O'Reilly Media -and MediaLive hosted the first Web 2.0 conference. In their opening remarks, -John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly outlined their definition of the "Web as -Platform", where software applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon -the desktop. The unique aspect of this migration, they argued, is that -"customers are building your business for you". They argued that the -activities of users generating content (in the form of ideas, text, videos, or -pictures) could be "harnessed" to create value. - - -In other words, Web 2.0 turned the place-ness of the web into a commodity. -Rather than expect everyone to host, or arrange for the hosting, of their own -corner of the web, the technologists would do it for them for "free"! This -coincided with the increasing complexity of the underlying technology of the -web; websites grew to be flashy, interactive, and stateful applications which -_did_ things rather than be places which _held_ things. The idea of a hyperlink, -upon which the success of the web had been founded, became merely an -implementation detail. - -And so the walled gardens began to be built. Myspace was founded in 2003, -Facebook opened to the public in 2006, Digg (the precursor to reddit) was -launched in 2004, Flickr launched in 2004 (and was bought by Yahoo in 2005), -Google bought Blogger in 2003, and Twitter launched in 2006. In effect this -period both opened the web up to everyone and established the way we still use -it today. - -It's upon these foundations that current events unfold. We have platforms whose -only incentive is towards capturing new users and holding their attention, to -the exclusion of other platforms, so they can be advertised to. Users are -enticed in because they are being offered a place on the web, a place of their -own to express themselves from, in order to find out the worth of their -expressions to the rest of the world. But they aren't expressing to the world at -large, they are expressing to a social media platform, a business, and so only -the most lucrative of voices are heard. - -So much for not wanting to talk about social media. - -## Web 3.0 - -The new hot topic in crypto and hacker circles is "Web 3.0", or the -decentralized web (dweb). The idea is that we can have all the good of the -current web (the accessibility, utility, permanency, etc) without all the bad -(the centralized platforms, censorship, advertising, etc). The way forward to -this utopian dream is by building decentralized applications (dApps). - -dApps are constructed in a way where all the users of an application help to -host all the stateful content of that application. If I, as a user, post an -image to a dApp, the idea is that other users of that same dApp would lend their -meager computer resources to ensure my image is never forgotten, and in turn I -would lend mine for theirs. - -In practice building successful dApps is enormously difficult for many reasons, -and really I'm not sure there _are_ any successful ones (to date). While I -support the general sentiment behind them, I sometimes wonder about the -efficacy. What people want from the web is a place they can call their own, a -place from which they can express themselves and share their contributions with -others with all the speed and pervasiveness that the internet offers. A dApp is -just another walled garden with specific capabilities; it offers only free -hosting, not free expression. - -## Web 2.0b - -I'm not here solely to complain (just mostly). - -Thinking back to Web 1.0, and specifically to the turning point between 1.0 and -2.0, I'd like to propose that maybe we made a wrong turn. The issue at hand was -that hosting one's own site was still too much of a technical burden, and the -direction we went was towards having businesses host them for us. Perhaps there -was another way. - -What are the specific difficulties with hosting one's own site? Here are the -ones I can think of: - -* Bad tooling: basically none of the tools you're required to use (web server, - TLS, DNS, your home router) are designed for the average person. - -* Aggregiously complex languages: making a site which looks half decent and can - do the things you want requires a _lot_ of knowledge about the underlying - languages (CSS, HTML, Javascript, and whatever your server is written in). - -* Single point-of-failure: if your machine is off, your site is down. - -* Security: it's important to stay ahead of the hackers, but it takes time to - do so. - -* Hostile environment: this is separate from security, and includes difficulties - like dynamic home IPs and bad ISP policies (such as asymetric upload/download - speeds). - -These are each separate avenues of attack. - -Bad tooling is a result of the fact that devs generally build technology for -themselves or their fellow devs, and only build for others when they're being -paid to do it. This is merely an attitude problem. - -Complex languages are really a sub-category of bad tooling. The concesus seems -to be that the average person isn't interested or capable of working in -HTML/CSS/JS. This may be true today, but it wasn't always. Most of my friends in -middle and high school were well within their interest and capability to create -the most heinous MySpace pages the world has ever seen, using nothing but CSS -generators and scraps of shitty JS they found lying around. So what changed? The -tools we use to build those pages did. - -A hostile environment is not something any individual can do anything about, but -in the capitalist system we exist in we can at least hold in faith the idea that -eventually us customers will get what we want. It may take a long time, but all -monopolies break eventually, and someone will eventually sell us the internet -access we're asking for. If all other pieces are in place I think we'll have -enough people asking to make a difference. - -For single point-of-failure we have to grant that more than one person will be -involved, since the vast majority of people aren't going to be able to keep one -machine online consistently, let alone two or more machines. But I think we all -know at least one person who could keep a machine online with some reliability, -and they probably know a couple of other people who could do so as well. What -I'm proposing is that, rather than building tools for global decentralization, -we need tools for local decentralization, aka federation. We can make it -possible for a group of people to have their presence managed by a subset of -themselves. Those with the ability could help to host the online presence of -their family, friends, churches, etc, if given the right tools. - -Security is the hard one, but also in many ways isn't. What most people want -from the web is a place from which to express themselves. Expression doesn't -take much more than a static page, usually, and there's not much attacking one -can do against a static page. Additionally, we've already established that -there's going to be at least a _couple_ of technically minded people involved in -hosting this thing. - -So that's my idea that I'd like to build towards. First among these ideas is -that we need tools which can help people help each other host their content, and -on top of that foundation a new web can be built which values honest expression -rather than the lucrative madness which our current algorithms love so much. - -This project was already somewhat started by -[Cryptorado](https://github.com/Cryptorado-Community/Cryptorado-Node) while I -was a regular attendee, but since COVID started my attendance has fallen off. -Hopefully one day it can resume. In the meantime I'm going to be working on -setting up these tools for myself, and see how far I can get. |