All Blue links tagged as

Digital humanism

Internet should serve people not governments and corporations

DP Review: Web rot is erasing our images and videos

https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/0517674260/web-rot-is-erasing-our-images-and-videos

The Internet is burning away our photos, videos and older websites daily. At nearly 40 years old, the Internet had lost much of its early history to changing technology and corporate and user desires.

Shaminder Dulai “Finer Points: Web rot is erasing our images and videos”

DP Review, the iconic digital photography e-zine and online forum, the cornerstone of the digital camera revolution of the 00’s, has barely escaped being shut down by its parent company, Amazon, and the subsequent deletion of all its content just earlier this Summer when it was acquired by Gear Patrol. This is why, probably, the topic of content disappearing from the web hits close to home for Shaminder Dulai, DP Review staff writer.

In his clear and well-thought-out essay he researched two major reasons for the so called web rot, the disappearance of old content from the web over time: change in technologies and the desire of the tech corporations, the owners of the web platforms we all use, to cut costs without second thought about preservation of the users’ content.

He suggests to take preservation of our digital treasures in our own hands, because we can’t trust this mission to the corporate spreadsheets. Some things require a heart.

Douglas Rushkoff on the current state of the internet and technologies and what could be done about it

https://www.wired.com/story/doug-rushkoff-survival-of-the-richest/

“Doug Rushkoff Is Ready to Renounce the Digital Revolution” by Malcolm Harris, Wired:

“Buy local, engage in mutual aid, and support cooperatives. Use monopoly law to break up anticompetitive behemoths, environmental regulation to limit waste, and organized labor to promote the rights of gig workers. Reverse tax policy so that those receiving passive capital gains on their wealth pay higher rates than those actively working for their income.”

An extensive interview with Douglas Rushkoff (I remember him by his book Media Virus!: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture, it was widely discussed back in the 90’s) about his transformation from the early internet techno-optimist to the strong proponent of the more humanistic approach to technologies.