Pretty Convenience
31 July 2010
Trying to find a transcript of a video of Tim O’Reilly’s opening keynote at the 2007 Web 2.0 Expo Europe in Berlin isn’t as easy as it sounds. Which disproves the saying that Google doesn’t forget. If the Ubernerd is talking in front of over a thousand nerds and you can’t find it on the net merely three years later, there is seemingly a chance for privacy after all.
The quote I’ve been looking for had something to do with centralization. O’Reilly was telling the crowd how everything in the Web 2.0 biz is starting out as fragmented community of startups, but eventually there will be a tendency towards centralization. I’m not a 100%, if that’s right, but that’s how I remember it and if by any chance remembers it correctly and the right quote doesn’t make my point obsolete, please feel free to post it in the comments.
My views on centralization are very clear: I’m not a fan. In some cases I do understand the need for it, but in the end we should always work towards solution that aren’t making us dependable on one or few providers of a specific service / product.
Do you remember the time we started blogging? The ability to do so wasn’t accessible to everyone at the same time, but during a very short period of time, we came to realize that having the ability to publish content, freely, openly, without political or financial agendas and without censorship is a big step towards something good. We’re today less dependent on information from few sources then before and we’re able to prove the still very influential elites wrong, if they’re actually wrong. Some people even called that a revolution and although no real blood was shed, it’s in fact a abrupt and hefty step towards freedom of information. Most of the readers of this blog are enjoying the fruits of this revolution in one way or another.
I didn’t agree with O’Reilly back in 2007. It didn’t make any sense for me that the fragmentation that helped to produce so many fantastic ideas would actually turn back on its principles and go towards centralization. But O’Reilly being the Ubernerd and me still practically a rookie … well, you know, I’m wrong.
Today we seem to have more centralized products with great influence on the whole ecosystem then in 2007. Apple’s iTunes platform is just one part of the equation. Look what happened after Amazon announced the price drop for the Kindle. Everybody stopped breathing for a second and actually started ordering this thing. Sure, the price is hot and who really cares about the fact that you can’t take your books out of the Kindle store. After all, who would switch from it anyway, right? Remember how that worked out with Windows?
But it’s not only those two. I’ve only recently started buying applications for my Nexus One and during this process I found myself wandering about the fact that I’m actually buying software that I can’t give away or sell it after I’m finished with it. I’m used to buy games and give them to my friends, but not on the mobile platform, not even with Google’s ‘open’ Android.
The internet, the so called revolution … we gained a lot of freedom in the process, but somehow we seem to lose a bunch of it to those new gate keepers. We’ve maybe striped the power of people like Rupert Murdoch, but we are slowly and quietly giving it to different people. Mostly, because right now it’s so convenient and pretty.
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