Comments on: Owning our own data: is there a technical solution?

By: Patrick Anderson

Patrick Anderson — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 19:16:54 +0000

Data requires atoms for storage, transport and expression.

Those who control atoms, control the data hosted upon those atoms.

Therefore, we must own atoms that host our data or forever be at the mercy of those who own those atoms.

We already pay all the costs required to own atoms, but do not have control because we do not know how to own that property properly.

Soon we will realize we can buy and own the datacenters needed to host our data for the sole purpose of receiving the results.

But we cannot do so in solitary confinement, we must do so in groups or crowds, and under a specific set of constraints similar in purpose to the GNU GPL, but for the physical realm.

We must forge a legally-binding social contract that will be the PropertyLeft of Property Rights ~ as the GNU GPL is a CopyLeft of CopyRights…

Here are 4 rules I have discovered for this GNU General Public Law:

Profit is the Payer’s Investment.
Product is the Investor’s return.
Promise is a Worker’s Investment.
Secession is every owner’s right.

By: Chinarut

Chinarut — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 02:25:52 +0000

Wow – this post that was just tweeted is really dated but admittedly, still a relevant conversation.

What has been built since Shiftspace? This technology was discontinued 3 years ago (2011)

it does sound like you are talking about what David Siegel, author of Pull, champions:

https://medium.com/@pullnews/lets-crowdfix-the-data-problem-permanently-4acfe2c833a9

Excuse the pitchy nature of the link – I wanted to share something recent (2014), has references to both his video and book, and of you’re bought into the vision, chip in 🙂

By: Mushin J. Schilling

Mushin J. Schilling — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:40:26 +0000

Dear Sepp,

yes, I’ve seen that and it looks very interesting.

By: Sepp Hasslberger

Sepp Hasslberger — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:35:44 +0000

Dear Mushin,

you’re right, I should not have said “resolved”. They took a first step in that direction by allowing threading, making comments editable and making it possible to cancel comments even after the editing period.

Have you seen this effort at providing a user-centered space as a layer above the current web:

http://www.shiftspace.org/

By: Mushin J. Schilling

Mushin J. Schilling — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:14:45 +0000

Dear Sepp,

I can’t see how Ning resolved any of the issues we have been discussing here.

Being able to edit what I said for 15 minutes after posting can also be done on zaadz, for instance.
Seeing the back and forth between two people is a very first step in the direction… but nothing in the direction of people actually ‘owning’ their comments.

By: Sepp Hasslberger

Sepp Hasslberger — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:56:35 +0000

Sorry, that link went wrong. Here is the correct one. http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/

By: Sepp Hasslberger

Sepp Hasslberger — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:53:59 +0000

I think that Ning resolved the issue pretty well. If you haven’t heard of them, there is a p2pfoundation group to check them out:

[email protected]

They allow you 15 minutes, within which time you can edit your comment multiple times. Simply clicking on the published comment itself will bring back the editing window and allow you to correct any mistakes. You can also cancel the comment after that time, if you so decide.

There is also a neat feature, a link at the bottom of displayed comments, that allows you to visualize the back-and-forth of comments between two people on one page, as a string, even if they are placed in different pages.

Seems like things are evolving…

By: Mushin J. Schilling

Mushin J. Schilling — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:40:13 +0000

The concept is interesting. It doesn’t take into account that comments are always part of a conversation, though.
Let’s say that I (M.) have a blog (Bl) to which A. comments (CA), to which then I comment again.
Now let’s say that A. is a smart-ass and doesn’t like my response very much; if he could edit it later (without that edit showing clearly) he could make my comment look really awful etc.
And this is just one scenario that shows that we cannot look at conversations on the net as ‘property’ in the old sense.

I think we might start to think about more intelligent browsers which keep track of all my entries all over the net, informs me of possible comments to it, changes and deletions, and maybe also writes all of that to my own site as a failsafe; maybe with an agreed upon seal of sorts that would show me as originator of that messages/entry and the copyright provisions I have made for that ‘piece’.

By: Sepp Hasslberger

Sepp Hasslberger — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:27:50 +0000

Interesting concept.

Just yesterday I found myself copying comments I made on a certain site to at least have a copy for future reference.

I agree that commenters should have control over (be able to edit and even delete) their comments left at different sites.

The concept of a user space seems a good way to go.