Re: [autonomo.us] 'Alternatives Working Group' on Loomio

[malcolm blaney]

oh dear Danyl you haven't missed his point, you've missed his email address :-)

Mal

On 11 April 2014 11:28, Danyl Strype <address@hidden> wrote:

Kia ora koutou

Eric, I have to admit I'm a bit confused about what you are trying to
say here, so if I end up accidentally slaughtering strawmen, please
feel free to explain where I've I missed your point.

On 9 April 2014 06:15, Eric Wong <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Hi, I'm new here but have long been interested in decentralization.  I would be more open to discussion on mailing lists or other text-only mediums (NNTP).  I've never been a fan of GUIs or web browsers. <<

You seem to be saying that text = decentralized, and  GUI = centralized.

Email depends on mailservers, the vast majority of which are hosted in
enormous corporate datacentres. Email is *distributed*, like XMPP/
Jabber, or Diaspora. It's not centralized (eg FaceBook messages), but
it's not decentralized either (eg BitMessage.org). FreeNet is one of
the most decentralized things I know of, but it has a GUI, and can be
used with a browser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Centralised-decentralised-distributed.png

>> Lately I've been forming a theory that GUIs are harmful to our cause, especially considering the few, powerful companies behind the major GUI browsers.  <<

You seem to be saying all GUI browsers are made by powerful companies.

This is certainly true of IE, Safari, and Chrome. However, the company
that makes Opera is not particularly powerful, and there are plenty of
free code browsers *not* made by for-profit companies at all,
including Firefox, Konqueror, Midori, Web, Netsurf, and arguably
Chromium and its variants (eg SRWare Iron).

>> Probably better to stop playing their game and move the world towards awareness of Free, easily-implementable data formats and protocols... <<

You seem to be saying that GUI web browers can't or don't implement
free formats, protocols, and standards.

Actually this is mainly what they do. For example their core mission
is to implement the HTTP protocol for the transfer of HTML pages, and
the HTML5 standard for this display of those pages. Many GUI browsers
also implement other protocols like FTP, and with suitable plugins,
IRC.

If you feel passionate about using and developing command lines tools,
by all means, go for it. Be aware though, that GNU/Linux started out
that way, but it's only been since more user-friendly GUIs like GNOME
and KDE were built that is started to be used by non-geeks.

Regards

Strypey

--
Danyl Strype
Community Developer
Disintermedia.net.nz/strype

"Geeks are those who partake in our culture."
- .ISOcrates

"Voting... is the next to last refuge of the politically impotent. The
last refuge is, of course, giving your opinion to a pollster, who will
get a version of it through a dessicated question, and then will
submerge it in a Niagra of similar opinions, and convert them into -
what else? - another piece of news. Thus, we have here a great loop of
impotence: The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which
you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you
can do nothing."
- Neil Postman, 'Amusing Ourselves To Death'

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