In Which Lengthy-Time Netizen & Programmer-at-Arms Dave Winer Data a Podcast for Me, Personally

“The Fall of the Blogosphere”, by Secure Diffusion, by way of NightCafe

However since I’ve a Gutenberg-Galaxy mind, I feed it to text-recognition software program <http://otter.ai>, after which edit the transcript.

However let me first hyperlink to a subsequent piece wherein Dave muses about what he want to see:

Dave Winer: Textcasting: ‘Like podcasting, for textual content. Podcasting is nice: We will do the identical for textual content. Let’s do it!: In textcasting, the equal of an MP3 is a document…. Non-obligatory titles, Markdown help, Hyperlinks, Easy styling, Enclosures (podcasting), Limitless size, Editable. To help it you do not have to help each characteristic. However you should not make it inconceivable to see with a service that helps the complete spec…. We’re at a very good second the place there isn’t any dominant feed reader or microblogging web site. It’s… fluid…. It’s a very good time to get in originally of one thing that might be even greater than podcasting, for textual content. I’m Dave Winer, I created running a blog, feeds and podcasting. I did it as soon as, I would love to do it once more, solely higher this time…

The way in which I considered this ten years in the past, throughout the decline and fall, was that all of it ought to work in the best way that community communication labored in Vernor Vinge’s wonderful mindbending science-fiction space-opera novel A Fire Upon the Deep—HEXAPODIA IS THE KEY INSIGHT!—sorry-not-sorry

.The complete message is pumped out from the supply to the receiver, and the receiver shows… as a lot of the complete message as bandwidth, {hardware}, occasion, and contingency permit. I might write a weblog put up. My software program would flip a few of it right into a header tweet, a (brief) tweet thread, and a hyperlink again to the complete model. My software program would flip a paragraph or two right into a Fb-friendly model. And all different social media websites would obtain no matter was the maximal element of it that they might grok, with a hyperlink again.

After all, this was all a non-starter: the purpose of a social media firm is to create a walled backyard, and the purpose of a walled backyard is to entice you in it and glue your eyeballs to the display with the intention to be offered the pretend diabetes cures, and crypto grifts.

Permitting anyone aside from badly desired super-creators to automate distribution of what the make to the social media web site, and particularly to simply create a path via which readers may bypass the social media web site sooner or later, ws 100% against the venture-capital advertising-supported money-making objective of Web2.

So Google kills its—very imperfect—Reader as a result of it needs to entice readers into its walled backyard known as… you recognize, I truly neglect! Google+. Whole flop. Fb and Twitter profit enormously. Google doesn’t. However, nonetheless, it by no means brings it again, as a result of the concept is determining how you can entice the eyeballs after which glue them to the display.

Because of this I nonetheless hope-against-hope that Web3 shouldn’t be merely a senseless, pointless set of grifters. And that is why I very a lot wish to again Manton Reese <http:/micro.blog> and Dave Winer <http://scripting.com/> and Chris Finest and Hamish McKenzie <http://substack.org>, and backed Ev Williams <https://ev.medium.com/>, as individuals with at the very least a concept about how you can make Web3 work, by some means, sometime.

After which we would have a very good system of an data utility community, and a effectively functioning public sphere for a contemporary democracy

Right here is the Dave Winer <http://scripting.com/> transcript:

Dave Winer: ‘I’ve quite a lot of ideas…. Whereas Twitter was camped out on high of what remained of the blogosphere—and to some extent [it] nonetheless [is]…—the issue was is that for those who have been writing for an online viewers—as I used to be constantly: by no means stopped—then you definately have been developing in opposition to the boundaries of the distribution programs… Twitter, Fb, Medium, RSS nonetheless, and… blogs…. These for me have been the principle ones. I wished my writing to move via all of these….

Google Reader…. RSS and Google Reader [were] two various things. As a result of Google Reader solely supported a subset… and have become an important a part of the issue… that there was no widespread denominator… of… [a] doc… that they’d all perceive… titles, hyperlinks, easy styling, limitless or size restrictions, the power to edit, and enclosures for podcasts…. I turned immersed in this stuff, as a result of I could not determine why I could not get all… to work collectively…. In 2017, I gave up, and I simply stated… I am simply going to make the running a blog work the best way I wished it to work…. In a short time [I] put collectively the content material administration system that I had in 1997—no, approach higher than what I had 97, let’s be clear about that. However essentially, the identical fundamental thought….

I may resolve whether or not or not an merchandise was brief or lengthy, or [if] it was brief and [could] change into lengthy. I had an editor that might accommodate all these… and permit me to reorder what was on the homepage…. I may edit it via the day. After which, on the finish of the day, it could exit by electronic mail. These have been the fundamental options… limitless size… titles or not… edit[able]… enclosures for podcasts, model hyperlinks, fundamental stuff….

Twitter stated… initially,that posts may solely be 140 characters… [and] couldn’t have titles…. Google Reader… stated posts will need to have titles proper there. You’ve got now had an empty set created…. That is the reason for why Twitter couldn’t have RSS feeds….

The issue was that Google Reader known as [Twitter’s] RSS feeds errors as a result of they did not have titles. So what they did was they… repeated the textual content of the tweet… within the title and within the physique…. Google Reader simply dumbly displayed each. After which the customers complained…. Twitter… if I have been them, I completely would have given up…. Google was being Google, the massive firm, and it did not give a s—-…. That was their positioning assertion.… Each time I attempted to speak to the individuals at Google Reader all I bought was a lecture about how busy they have been and the way they did not have any time to do something…. The undertone was: We hate our jobs. We bought assigned this…. Right here I used to be the man who created the medium that they have been utilizing…. These issues have been replicated…. The put in base of feed readers… all mainly took their lead from Google Reader…. It’s now 9 years in and we’re nonetheless coping with it….

Mastodon has RSS feeds. And their feeds shouldn’t have titles…. Manton Reese’s micro.dot… fantastic work…. He talked them into doing it the precise approach. And, you recognize, I used to be arise and cheer….

It wasn’t simply Google Reader and Twitter…. It was additionally Fb…. Fb had no titles… could not do hyperlinks… no styling, no enclosures. Simply plain previous textual content…. After I was cross posting to Fb… [from] my weblog, I used to be reluctant to make use of hyperlinks, as a result of I knew individuals studying it on Fb would not see the hyperlinks…. All these limits and commerce offs and bulls—… change into additive to the purpose the place… the writing turns into disgustingly bulls—. Writing ought to move…. I get right into a zone once I’m writing…. And [if] you add a bunch of additional bulls—- to it…. I am not fascinated by the factor that I am writing about. I am fascinated by how do I coax out of this complicated, loopy scenario of individuals not listening to one another, and… by no means listening to writers. It [is] simply being silly or ignorant…. Ignoring what’s is what ignorant means, proper?….

Now Medium comes alongside…. Pundits and politicians begin treating Medium prefer it’s the place of report…. Sadly, it is a… money-losing startup… the worst doable selection for on-the-record writing…. It appeared nice, Medium, lovely editor. It is a breakthrough in quite a lot of methods. The one factor you may’t do is revise…. I put up one thing to Medium and that is it. If I wish to make modifications to it, I’ve to go over there and make the modifications by hand.

We could… [be] liberated… however provided that we are able to get some type of settlement… as to what a doc is…. Simply help the issues…. The query is, what can we be taught from the errors we made?… There isn’t any dialogue between builders and customers. Customers do not put any power into attempting to assist builders that wish to make software program that is for them…. I went to a number of journalism conferences and stated: Look, all I wish to do is make software program for you. Would you’re employed with me on that?… Within the 80s. And 90s…. Issues moved so shortly then… as a result of customers and builders have been in fixed contact…. We knew who we have been making merchandise for. And we knew what they wished….

There’s an excellent story, Man Kawasaki… Apple evangelist…involves a reception that my firm had… palms me a chunk of paper… from… the brand new vp of merchandise at Apple…. The checklist was the options that all of my customers wished and [they] have been… within the subsequent model of the product, as a result of we have been so in tune with them….

[There] was it was a beautiful time, very temporary interval that Apple and builders actually did do some stuff collectively, as a result of there have been customers working the corporate, and critically concerned with making the software program higher…. We simply want sufficient customers to take an curiosity in what we’re doing and use the product and reply to the brand new options that we add. And ask for extra options. It is actually all that we want. It is the meals that makes our stuff develop. After which what we are able to do is we are able to go again to you guys….

We can provide you an order of magnitude extra performance. And it really works….

The subtext right here: Please do not ever let Google take management of a market once more…. It is weak proper now…. All of them have tried to dominate podcasting…. None of them can do it…. Podcasting goes to remain open. However proper now… have been coping with a post-war running a blog platform. We’ve been via World Warfare III….. Do not ever allow them to take management once more…. When it begins to occur, just remember to do not go together with them. You go together with unbiased builders which are working in your curiosity….

I simply merely cannot consider that I see Google on the point of come again into RSS land, and I additionally see customers begging them to do it. And… I’m shaking my head… that we’re taking place that street once more. No approach.

Anyway, I have been speaking for quarter-hour and that is lengthy sufficient. Thanks for listening…

Right here is the backstory he’s reacting to:

John Scalzi: How to Weave the Artisan Web: ‘1. Create/reactivate your individual web site…. 2. Write or in any other case current work in your web site at the very least as soon as every week…. 3. Commonly go to the websites of different[s]…. 4. Promote/hyperlink the work of others, by yourself web site and likewise in your different social media channels…. Now, why ought to we convey again that artisan, hand-crafted Internet? Oh, I don’t know. Wouldn’t it’s good to have a web site that’s not run by an amoral billionaire chaos engine, or algorithmically designed to maintain you doomscrolling in a state of worry and anger, or is actually spyware and adware for governments and/or firms?…
Matthew Yglesias: What I learned co-founding Vox: ‘There was and is an viewers for… explanatory journalism…. [But] there weren’t prospects…. Vox’s readers weren’t prospects; Vox was an advert gross sales enterprise…. To serve the wants of advertisers, you wanted to serve the wants of the platforms…. Everybody complains about having to learn via just a few hundred phrases earlier than attending to the recipe…. That was as a result of Google gave precedence to recipe pages that have been structured like actual articles…. Platform dependence made product innovation basically inconceivable. It was additionally editorially constraining…. Many of the media tendencies… deplore[d] are direct penalties of Fb’s affect over journalism within the mid-2010s…. Arduous-core id politics and simplistic socialism carried out extremely effectively on Fb…. You ended up with this entire cohort of discourse structured round “Is Bernie Sanders good in each approach or is it problematic to vote for a white man?” as the one doable lens for analyzing American politics and society…
Brad DeLong: Þe Forlorn Hope Þt Was Vox.com: ‘When Jackie Calmes moved from the Wall Avenue Journal to the New York Instances she quickly went from one among my must-reads to a rarely-read…. Dan Froomkin interviewed her, and he or she defined why… “beat reporting… the pressures you’re beneath to keep up sources…” and “I felt extra stress of… bothsidesism… [at] the New York Instances… [which] bends over backwards…. In case you’re saying Republicans do one thing incorrect you must point out that Democrats bear some blame too…”. It appears to me that it could be rather more enjoyable to jot down explainers than clickbait or beat sweeteners, and end up working to your sources first, your bosses second, the advertisers third, and the reader under no circumstances. And but I’ve no cause to disbelieve Matt’s remark that vox.com couldn’t maintain onto reporters by promising them a better-suited if worse-paid place to be their finest selves…
Brad DeLong: Old-Style Blogging Should Be New Again!: ‘Calls to virtuous collective motion should be rigorously crafted to not ask extra of the viewers than it will likely be prepared to ship…. We have to have an correct concept of what triggered the Fall of the Blogosphere within the first place. Why did the viewers—and, sure, the creators too—succumb to the Siren music, and wind up doomscrolling via clickbait in order that their glued-to-the-screen eyeballs might be offered to advertisers convincing them that the more severe is definitely the higher product as they promote their pretend diabetes cures and crypto grifts?… Individuals… shrug and say “consideration financial system” and “human speedy, response, dopamine loops”. A few of them… hope… Apple’s promoting monitoring transparency… put[s]… sufficient sand within the gears of the advertising-attention machine that we people can then escape…
Dan Drezner: Back to Old School Blogging?: ‘The inducement construction could be shifting again to running a blog!… Three issues killed the previous blogosphere… cash… Twitter… the smartphone… [which] additional inspired tweet-length concepts over something longer…. Every of those tendencies has now been partially reversed…. The Washington Post… focus[ing] on information and investigations on the expense of study or commentary…. Substack… has enabled some to earn an earnings…. As for Twitter, effectively…. Lastly, Substack’s subscription-based distribution has additionally conquered the telephone downside. Of us learn blogs as publication emails straight to their telephone…. Possibly incentives are shifting again…. And but…. it isn’t in reality, 2002, however 2022…. The cash hasn’t shifted all that a lot. I’ve my doubts concerning the sustainability of the publication financial system…. Blogosphere… superstars… [may not be] doable in such a polarized political local weather. Contemplate… Mickey Kaus, Andrew Sullivan, and Josh Marshall. It’s onerous to think about any of them having a civil dialog today…
Brad DeLong: Þe Washington Post Decides Þt It No Longer Has to Fear þe Blogosphere. Do Hijinks Ensue? ‘I disagree that Twitter was a far superior point of interest for “discovering fast hyperlinks, reactions, and responses”. RSS was the One True Protocol. Admittedly, RSS had an issue amalgamating in presenting a mixture of micro, blocking and longer kind. Nevertheless it at all times appeared to me that hashtags and feed-filtering may simply care for that: #Microblog, #BlogPost, #Longform…. However then Google killed Google reader, and Twitter was there, and have become the clown automotive that stumbled right into a gold mine. So maybe, now we’ve one other likelihood? Do do not forget that the unique aspiration for <http://vox.com> was to take the power of the blogosphere and broaden it out into a corporation that will earn a living and remodel the general public sphere…. [But] you may’t do explainer journalism and nonetheless be a money-making subcontractor for Google and FaceBook adverts except you have already got Ezra’s viewers and popularity…. We’re very assured that stepping into the advertising-supported recreation makes all of it about inconceivable to proceed doing all your finest work. And distributing all of it without spending a dime—effectively, it’s a nonstarter to hope that you would be able to achieve a popularity which is able to then open different doorways one among which might be remunerative…