Episode 0024: The Problem as LinkedIn

Show Notes Host: Dan Hugo Summary: communication and third party platforms, two different motivations diametrically opposed? As LinkedIn? When we speak of real communication, Facebook and TikTok got off the train a long way back. LinkedIn is often touted as the largest social media platform for business and professionals so we pick on them first When we consider city-scale communication and ecosystem development, LinkedIn is always top-of-list, but is this a problem? Enpoopification Keeping it clean-ish. This is a term coined by infamous Cory Doctorow in 2022, about public platforms, especially social media platforms, devolving into profit-driven antics that are ultimately unhealthy for their users in favor of their shareholders or other benefactors. Start at the Wikipedia link below, there is a section on this (correctly spelled…) LinkedIn, with its powerful role in professional communications, has leaned in completely to algorithms and user training, reinforcing the training with notifications and other messaging advising the use of tags and user mentions to boost placement. You are the product. This is similarly true on YouTube and most other social media platforms… they begin with inviting features and turn against their users in favor of advertisers or other financial forces, and the users who grew to depend on the platform are then required to tow the line, wherever it moves. Change is Difficult Taking back communications with peers, colleagues, friends, business partners, potential clients… this is a hard problem. It is a problem. Once a profit-driven block is placed in The Middle, there is often no turning back, until a dramatically better option becomes available, to begin the cycle anew. Is it possible to break the cycle? Federate, De-Centralize, Self-Publish, Oh My! The old ways, when all of this was new. Own your content, maintain your contact list for yourself or your company. Platforms can publish links to your content and add value in curation, aggregation, etc, without taking your connection away… will they? History has the answer. By the way, this is the Google (and Bing) model, they can slap ads on search results based on your content and content from others, they control how it is displayed, if at all. Now the hard part, which some may choose not not pursue… Links Cory Doctorow on Wikipedia