@robin@mastodon.social
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

robin

@robin@mastodon.social

Governance & Standards at @protocollabs — Former NYT, W3C TAG, science.ai — Privacy, Web, Science, Politics, Philosophy. (he/him/Ishmael)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

Check out the updated tracks list for IPFS Camp! So much good stuff coming to Brussels this summer…
https://blog.ipfs.tech/ipfs-camp-2024-track-list/

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

As closing arguments of the Google Search trial proceed, there are two things I would like to flag.

First, the way in which search works on the web is stuck in the 90s. We need not stay there and can imagine alternatives (that aren't crappy AI): https://berjon.com/fixing-search/.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

And second, the default slot and royalties deals have a dreadful effect on competition, the web, and society, but some of the money levied that way is deployed usefully and we should preserve that.

We can do so by formalizing how that levy works (WIP): https://darobin.github.io/wise/.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@jszym Glad you enjoyed it and it's of course perfectly fine to disagree, my goal is to hopefully trigger some thinking!

Note that:

  1. Bing having an API has helped some alternatives emerge.
  2. It's impossible for anyone to make any kind of dent so long as Google is allowed to just buy the market. Everything in that post assumes that that has to change first (by legal intervention most likely).
  3. APIs are useful as part of a bigger solution, notably that there is no other browser default.
robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@jszym 4) I don't think the APIs would disappear if that's the primary way in which a search engine can make money. Keep in mind that browser defaults matter a lot.
5) The new UX that APIs enable (and that browsers are largely not allowed to do under the current system) could IMHO be a game changer, and can't happen without them. It would be worth prototyping to show it.

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

I'm delighted to share the German translation of the Rewilding essay from @mariafarrell and I! Deep thanks to Netzpolitik.

https://netzpolitik.org/2024/essay-wir-muessen-zurueck-zum-wilden-internet/

JustinH, to fediverse
@JustinH@twit.social avatar

"We Need To Rewild The Internet"
An absolutely excellent read (and great analogy) by @mariafarrell and @robin Probably the best piece I've read all year.

I often struggle to think of a term for "appearing messy from a distance is often, on a human scale, healthy actually." Comparing the social web to an ecosystem is exactly it.

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

@fediverse

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@JustinH @mariafarrell @fediverse Thank you! Yes — "this chaotic-seeming thing is good, actually" is a tough message :)

fabrice, to random
@fabrice@fosstodon.org avatar

Interesting search engine project with customizable ranking and API access: https://github.com/StractOrg/stract / cc @robin

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice Huh, the results I get are pretty dated (I suspect it's very strongly derating third-party trackers) but this is interesting thanks!

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice I really like that it's built around results customisability. I think that's a killer feature, assuming the indexing isn't the issue here.

I wonder if it can store its index on IPFS :)

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice Yeah: "A tantivy index is a collection of smaller independent immutable segments." This is promising, but the file names don't seem to be content addressable (though I'm not sure, maybe they can be!).

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice I think that Mark is doing something like that (really).

That said, I'm not sure you need the Fuse indirection: Tantivy has a pluggable directory abstraction that could go straight to WNFS.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice Hahaha, keep me posted, I'm really curious to hear if that could be a thing. It would make for a great IPFS Camp topic too. (Hint hint)

matthiasott, to random
@matthiasott@mastodon.social avatar

Issue 14 of is out. 🥳

Webmentions.

With links to posts and tools by @maggie, @GIFmodel, @sia, @mariafarrell, @robin, @fonts, @mxbck, @nhoizey, @aaronpk, @pfefferle, @mauricerenck, @sebastiangreger, @belldotbz, @Aaron, @rem and many more! 🎉

✨Personal site of the (every other) week by @Robb ✨

https://buttondown.email/ownyourweb/archive/issue-14/

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@matthiasott Thanks a lot for including us!

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

If you haven't read it yet, this weekend would be a great time to find out why this article from @mariafarrell and I in Noema Magazine made it to The Syllabus's "Best of Journalism" this week! (See https://www.the-syllabus.com/cabinet/syllabus/3KabNgk-0K?__s=xxxxxxx&__s=xxxxxxx)

It's here: https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice @mariafarrell Glad you read it :)

I don't think that the solutions are purely state-based, though it would take more space to add details to that.

Enabling industrial policy would certainly help. I think we have the means to make that happen, but it requires some creative thinking to make it effective.

koalie, (edited ) to random
@koalie@mastodon.social avatar

Highlights: “We need to rewild the Internet”

Today I read We Need To Rewild The Internet by Maria Farrell and @robin (Robin Berjon) (April 16, 2024), and I selected personal annotated highlights from it.

https://blog.koalie.net/2024/04/23/highlights-we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@koalie Thank you ❤️‍🔥

svoisen, to random
@svoisen@front-end.social avatar

Thinking a lot about how we fund web browser development after re-visiting @robin's Web Infrastructure Search Endowment and stumbling on the minutes from the related TPAC discussion.

We know AI-based "search for me" like Arc Search threatens publisher and content creator revenue, but I wonder if anyone is writing/thinking about how AI search also threatens to alter browser funding? Maybe it doesn’t, but I have a hard time believing it won’t alter those economics.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@svoisen My theory is that it threatens not browser funding, but browsers. The writing on the wall is Chrome, and it's been observable for a time.

Over the years, Chrome has become less and less a browser (in the sense of a user agent for the web) and increasingly just the in-app webview for the Google universe. It's increasingly integrated with Google much more than with anything else.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@svoisen Google just reorged to put Android+Chrome+AI all under a single division — so we should expect this trend to continue.

Now, in an AI-centric worldview, you decreasingly need something messy like the web. Eventually, you can just license content from vetted providers and use that to drive an experience with your ads and your services, all hanging off of conversational interactions that limit interactions with anything else.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@svoisen One fun game to play to imagine that future is to use the web the way many Android users do, which is to say just through the Google Search app. When you visit a site in that, you're not really taken to Chrome, you're still in Search. The settings and behaviour are slightly different.

As far as I can tell the Chrome folks are in denial that they're digging their own grave. But then again, to work for Google is to be in denial in the first place.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@svoisen I don't know if you saw Arc's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIeJF3kL5ng. They are keenly aware that they're sacrificing their most likely revenue stream — what I'm curious to see is if they can come up with another.

Note, however, this dark future isn't the only one. There are alternatives, there are ways to make this work better. It won't come from Chrome because a good solution has to stop taking value out of the web and that would eliminate their margins, but there are options!

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@svoisen Yeah, I've been thinking I should perhaps talk to them, it's a space in which I have a few thoughts :)

I'd like to see Mozilla succeed too! But, well…

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

Are you thrilled about this piece on rewilding the internet from @mariafarrell and I but you're not entirely sure how anyone fits reading a 7,000 word article into their day?

You're in luck: the audio version has just been added!
https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@mariafarrell Unfortunately, I am physically incapable of listening through anything this long (there's a reason I very nearly failed high school!), I almost never do podcasts because they require a lot of concentration energy unless they're highly narrative (like the Santiago Boys). But I'll re-read it :)

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@drandrewv2 @mariafarrell Thank you Jenny!

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

Excited to see Noēma publishing this from @mariafarrell and I (with a much bigger contribution from Maria).

The internet, and us with it, suffers under extraction & monoculture. We can revitalise it by applying lessons from conservation ecology.

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@Anarchy_How @mariafarrell Thank you! Glad you liked it, and how could this not bring in Scott? ;-)

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • anitta
  • hgfsjryuu7
  • magazineikmin
  • everett
  • ngwrru68w68
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • InstantRegret
  • mdbf
  • GTA5RPClips
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • tester
  • PowerRangers
  • osvaldo12
  • cubers
  • khanakhh
  • ethstaker
  • vwfavf
  • normalnudes
  • Durango
  • modclub
  • cisconetworking
  • tacticalgear
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • All magazines
    •