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I like that Tim highlights incentives here: profit
versus social good
If we could have an overall incentive for businesses that
includes social good, regulating different sectors would be so much
simpler, and companies would be much freer to innovate and
create.
Failing that I think size is important, because businesses lose
incentive towards social goods as they get bigger. This is what’s
behind ‘think local’ and ‘small is beautiful’, and is one
of the attractions of decentralisation of course.
One reason small is beautiful in business, is that
small businesses are more likely to have a stake in a community, so
their interests align. They are more likely to understand the
people they serve, employ, and the people connected through these
groups, as well as other businesses. Many different entities
together forming an ecosystem where the good of individuals,
businesses and the whole are closely aligned. Contrast that with a
very large business for whom this small community is not
significant, which thinks mainly in terms of much bigger issues and
overall profitability, and you have an empathy gap that allows that
business to treat such communities as business assets from which
value can be extracted, while creating harm to individuals and
society as a whole. It is actually very hard for such businesses to
behave differently, because of the incentives created for them by
the existing business and regulatory frameworks.
In the absence of clever regulation that can incentivise social
good, I think that decentralised ownership and control of data,
SAFE Network and project Solid for example, can push us firmly
towards smaller more accountable business.
So I’ve moved this from off-topic to marketing. I think
Tim’s views here, and more generally on decentralised ownership
and control of data are very relevant to this project.
I’m still trying to understand how Tim and his team view this,
but he believes that there are investors who see this as an
opportunity, much like the early Web, and will be early investors
who will fund application development and fund new business
models.
I think that’s optimistic, but also credible - because as
influencers and policy makers look for solutions to the underlying
problems being caused by very large Internet businesses, his and
our part is to ensure that solutions are available which can
demonstrate there is a better approach. This can be a powerful
route to adoption, and we already have an example of this in the
GDPR which Tim also sees as a driver for the Solid/SAFE Network
approach (note MaidSafe’s recent
partnership with Identillect which is directed towards
opportunities created by the GDPR).
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This was good quote in the article, “Berners-Lee has always
maintained that his creation was a reflection of humanity – the
good, the bad and the ugly. However, his vision to create an
“open platform that allows anyone to share information, access
opportunities and collaborate across geographical boundaries” has
been challenged as the web has become more centralised.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if Tim Bernes-Lee could partner and promote
SAFE-network when near beta and launch.
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the Guardian – 12 Mar 18
Tim Berners-Lee: we must
regulate tech firms to prevent 'weaponised' web
The inventor of the world wide web warns over concentration of
power among a few companies ‘controlling which ideas are
shared’
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This was good quote in the article, “Berners-Lee has always
maintained that his creation was a reflection of humanity – the
good, the bad and the ugly. However, his vision to create an “open
platform that allows anyone to share information, access
opportunities and collaborate across geographical boundaries” has
been challenged as the web has become more centralised.” Wouldn’t
it be nice if Tim Bernes-Lee could partner and promote SAFE-network
when near beta and launch.
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