Interop and the Public Interest Internet

To fight network effects, reduce switching costs.

When we talk about the internet’s problems and solutions, we tend to focus on Big Tech, the monopolizers who dominate our digital lives. That’s only natural.

But there’s another internet, one that deserves our attention: The Public Interest Internet.

https://www.eff.org/issues/public-interest-internet

The Public Interest Internet is a “wider, more diverse, more generous world. Often run by volunteers, frequently without any institutional affiliation, sometimes tiny, often local, but free for everyone online to use and contribute to, this internet preceded big tech.”

EFF’s ongoing series on the Public Interest Internet has highlighted public, volunteer film scholarship:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/05/enclosure-public-interest-internet

Music utilities:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/05/outliving-outrage-public-interest-internet-cddb-story

and music recommendations and metadata:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/organizing-public-interest-musicbrainz

Today, I’ve published a new installment in the series, “The Tower of Babel: How…