Hello, world! (part.1)

Written on April 11th, 2020 by James

‘Hello, world!’ is how I’d like to start.

That phrase is important in the world of computers. It feels right to include it here on my website’s first post as a greeting.

But this is about the internet. This is about why I wanted to set up this website and why I think we all need to start to change how we interact online.

The internet began as a place of user-owned content. Anyone with a computer and a passion for something could put up a website and share their ideas. For a couple of bucks you could buy a domain name, space on a host server, and you could share something with other people from all around the world.

It was a self-run community where anyone was welcome. It was weird and wonderful.

Things have changed.

The internet today is dominated by a couple of big websites (you know who). User content is only presented in a handful of ways. Creativity is stifiled and our ownership of the internet is slowly being erased.

This narrowing of user content options benefits these big websites and allows them to turn your internet activity and content into data. Data which they turn back on you as advertising.

We have forgotten that it is we who own the internet. Us users – not them.

So, with one small goofy blog at a time – I think we need to take it back.

Let’s make the internet messy and weird again. Let’s screw with their algorithms and their business models. Let’s show them that we want a future for the internet that we control, not them. Let’s remind them (and ourselves) that the internet is precious and fragile, and that we all have a responsibility to preserve its founding ideals because of the power it has to bring us together.

(Continue reading here)

/James