Bettering the web
September 15, 2017 11:57 AM Subscribe
The Internet Health Report is an open-source initiative from Mozilla to "document and explain what's happening to the health of the internet" across five indicators: open innovation, digital inclusion, decentralization, privacy and security, and web literacy. Release 1.0 of the living document is scheduled for 2018.
Unfortunately, since Mozilla would seem to have trouble pouring beer from a bottle with instructions printed on the bottom - preferring to do things the way they want, and screw what everyone else thinks - it's a bit hard to take this as seriously as it might deserve.
The Mozilla Foundation these days appears to be little more than a half billion dollar slush fund that exists purely to feed a handful of people's pet hobby-horses…
posted by Pinback at 4:32 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
The Mozilla Foundation these days appears to be little more than a half billion dollar slush fund that exists purely to feed a handful of people's pet hobby-horses…
posted by Pinback at 4:32 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
...which makes it 50% better than the internet corporations that exist purely to feed a handful of people's bank accounts. Can you imagine an Internet Health Report that originated at Google/Microsoft/Apple/Facebook?
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:15 PM on September 15, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:15 PM on September 15, 2017 [7 favorites]
How?
To be honest, it reads little different (with the exception that you'd hope a document from GOOGL/MSFT/AAPL/FB was less facile & had better spelling/grammar), and follows much the same form:
posted by Pinback at 6:19 PM on September 15, 2017
To be honest, it reads little different (with the exception that you'd hope a document from GOOGL/MSFT/AAPL/FB was less facile & had better spelling/grammar), and follows much the same form:
- State your metric/position. Don't bother to examine whether/why it's a good metric/position, or provide supporting evidence that it is - just state why you know it is, and lead readers along with you.
- Pick a few sources/studies/references that agree with you. Allocate the examples they consider between:
- good/"healthy" - you can cite those as directly supporting your position; and
- bad/"unhealthy" - frame those as disagreeing with their examples, thus indirectly supporting your position
- Wrap up with a looking forward/"prognosis" section that re-inforces your initial position and warns against ignoring it - again, without any examination or supporting evidence.
- Lather, rinse, repeat…
posted by Pinback at 6:19 PM on September 15, 2017
Apple explicitly exists to make money off of you through hardware, and wrote a browser to allow you to access the internet on their terms (I am using an iPad right now)
Google explicitly exists to make money off of you through advertising and deep analysis of your habits, and wrote a browser to better be able to track what you do (gmail user since 2004, google is my default search engine everywhere)
Microsoft explicitly exists to make money off of you through software, increasingly through hardware, and in many ways more than any of the above through ratfucking you into having to use their products because they have made it hard to use anything else on their platforms, which dominate the world's desktop ecosystems (I am stuck on Windows at work, not by choice, although I do choose to use Office on purpose on my own hardware)
Facebook explicitly exists to make money off of you through knowing everything about you and trying at every step to eliminate conversations that are not facilitated by them (I have an account, and kind of hate it)
Mozilla doesn't seem to make money. They don't own search, they don't own the browser ecosystem, they exist through deals struck with the others. If I trust any of these companies to give me an objective overview of the state of the web, it's Mozilla. They have an interest in what happens but they aren't in a position to drive the ship towards their own bottom line. (Firefox/Thunderbird is my default browser/email combo on desktop, since forever)
posted by caution live frogs at 7:22 AM on September 16, 2017 [3 favorites]
Google explicitly exists to make money off of you through advertising and deep analysis of your habits, and wrote a browser to better be able to track what you do (gmail user since 2004, google is my default search engine everywhere)
Microsoft explicitly exists to make money off of you through software, increasingly through hardware, and in many ways more than any of the above through ratfucking you into having to use their products because they have made it hard to use anything else on their platforms, which dominate the world's desktop ecosystems (I am stuck on Windows at work, not by choice, although I do choose to use Office on purpose on my own hardware)
Facebook explicitly exists to make money off of you through knowing everything about you and trying at every step to eliminate conversations that are not facilitated by them (I have an account, and kind of hate it)
Mozilla doesn't seem to make money. They don't own search, they don't own the browser ecosystem, they exist through deals struck with the others. If I trust any of these companies to give me an objective overview of the state of the web, it's Mozilla. They have an interest in what happens but they aren't in a position to drive the ship towards their own bottom line. (Firefox/Thunderbird is my default browser/email combo on desktop, since forever)
posted by caution live frogs at 7:22 AM on September 16, 2017 [3 favorites]
California Legislature Sells Out Our Data to ISPs
posted by jeffburdges at 12:52 PM on September 18, 2017
posted by jeffburdges at 12:52 PM on September 18, 2017
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posted by mosst at 12:11 PM on September 15, 2017