Internet Users in Developing Countries Drag on Sites’ Profits - NYTimes.com

The People’s Web

Every day, millions of people rely on independent websites that are mostly created by regular people, weren’t designed as mobile apps, connect deeply to culture, and aren’t run by the giant tech companies. These are a vision of not just what the web once was, but what it can be again.

This really hits home for me. Anil could be describing The Session here:

They often start as a labor of love from one person, or one small, tightly-knit community. The knowledge or information set that they record is considered obscure or even worthless to outsiders, until it becomes so comprehensive that its collective worth is undeniable.

This is a very important message:

Taken together, these sites are as valuable as any of the giant platforms run by the tech titans.

Building a More Honest Internet - Columbia Journalism Review

The dominant narrative for the growth of the World Wide Web, the graphical, user-friendly version of the internet created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, is that its success has been propelled by Silicon Valley venture capitalism at its most rapacious. The idea that currently prevails is that the internet is best built by venture-backed startups competing to offer services globally through category monopolies: Amazon for shopping, Google for search, Facebook for social media. These companies have generated enormous profits for their creators and early investors, but their “surveillance capitalism” business model has brought unanticipated harms.

It doesn’t have to be this way, says Ethan Zuckerman:

A public service Web invites us to imagine services that don’t exist now, because they are not commercially viable, but perhaps should exist for our benefit, for the benefit of citizens in a democracy. We’ve seen a wave of innovation around tools that entertain us and capture our attention for resale to advertisers, but much less innovation around tools that educate us and challenge us to broaden our sphere of exposure, or that amplify marginalized voices. Digital public service media would fill a black hole of misinformation with educational material and legitimate news.

An Apology for the Internet — From the People Who Built It

A hand-wringing, finger-pointing litany of hindsight, published with 11 tracking scripts attached.

1. Start With Hippie Good Intentions …
2. … Then mix in capitalism on steroids.
3. The arrival of Wall Streeters didn’t help …
4. … And we paid a high price for keeping it free.
5. Everything was designed to be really, really addictive.
6. At first, it worked — almost too well.
7. No one from Silicon Valley was held accountable …
8. … Even as social networks became dangerous and toxic.
9. … And even as they invaded our privacy.
10. Then came 2016.
11. Employees are starting to revolt.
12. To fix it, we’ll need a new business model …
13. … And some tough regulation.
14. Maybe nothing will change.
15. … Unless, at the very least, some new people are in charge.