Re: [Social-discuss] Languages -- let's make a web application

[Kaliya]

On Mar 28, 2010, at 3:05 PM, Ted Smith wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-03-28 at 11:13 -0700, Jason Self wrote:
> > Matt Lee <address@hidden> wrote ..
> > > On 03/28/2010 02:03 PM, Henry Litwhiler wrote:
> > >
> > > > I don't see why users have to be able to use commodity hosting.  
> > > > If we
> > > > make it easy enough, anyone can host their own GNU Social  
> > > > install, p2p
> > > > style.
> > >
> > > Because I don't believe the majority of people will.
> > >
> > > What will they host it on? The majority of Facebook users don't  
> > > have a
> > > machine they can install their own servers on. Being able to use  
> > > this
> > > from anywhere is key for success, and that means browser based.
> >
> > +1
> >
> > Plus, remember that many ISPs (at least in the U.S.) prohibit their  
> > customers
> > from running "servers" under penalty of cancellation.
>
> The GNU Project should not bend itself to the whims of profiteering
> leeches.

I guess it is totally unsurprising to hear talk like this.

I have been working with very idealistic folks working on identity and  
much of what you are talking about for a long time.   In order to get  
systems of the magnitude of everyone having control of their own data  
online and the freedom to peer-to-peer link and freedom to organize  
one needs to work with business and transform the exploitive systems  
that underly our world today into ones that are ethically moral and  
for the people.

To get things to work and be supported resources and money need to flow.
Business in itself is NOT the DEVIL.

Good ethical businesses are great - they help make the world go.
So figuring out how you align yourself with those might not a bad thing.

I pay a great service provider to host my blogs online.  This is a  
fair trade. I can't and don't want to learn out to make a web server  
work.  99% of people don't either.  So if you are building a social  
application you want to have wide scale adoption you need to think  
about regular people's capacities and also USABILITY.

I am curious how many usability specialists are on this list.

-Kaliya