WE NEED USERS' COOPS to Provide Facebook-, YouTube-Like Facilities

[snot]

They don't have to torture us in order to gain access to our innermost psyches, 'cuz we're voluntarily giving them guided tours.

And, looking at a forum discussion of YouTube vs. Vimeo vs. et al., I was disappointed to find no mention of the legal issues. Last time I checked, YouTube required you to grant them a license to use whatever you upload however they like, forever. I suspect Vimeo's no better in this regard, and in any event, bet they all reserve the right to change the terms whenever and without notice.

The situation re- Facebook and other social media/networking facilities is even worse, since many of us are uploading vast volumes of personal info about ourselves at a near-frantic rate (you didn't think all those quizzes were just for your personal amusement, did you?)

Every time you connect to a friend, well, if, say, you participated in a peace demo and someone decides to put you on the no-fly list, they might decide to take a look at your friend, too.

Ditto Twitter et al.

Obviously, these facilities are fun, helpful, wonderful in many ways. But make no mistake: they are NOT run for our benefit.

There's an alternative. These things can't be that expensive to operate, esp. relative to the number of users. Coops could run them for OUR benefit. If they became the main game in town, they could probably make enough off ads to pay for themselves, even if they didn't mine our personal info for advertisers or gummints.

[blogslut]

1. There's plenty of open source software out there

And running a small text-based site costs relatively little. However, when one starts to garner huge traffic and/or starts delivering large files, like videos, that's where it gets expensive.

[snot]

2. I find that hard to believe.

If commercial corps can do it, why not a coop? Which wouldn't have to pay oversized salaries to execs or profits to investors.

[blogslut]

3. I'm not sure what you find hard to believe

I didn't cite specific numbers on bandwidth. I merely stated that the more one transfers/stores, the more it costs to host. I said nothing about salaries.

[snot]

4. I never said zero cost, just that it's got to be tiny once spread over the number of users.

And we'd own our data ourselves.

Maybe we could have an option: people who don't care about their privacy could agree that their personal data could be mined, in exchange for being exempted from fees.

Personally, I'd rather pay a fee.

[blogslut]

7. As I said

There's plenty of Open Source software that can be implemented to serve your purpose. Open Source = Free. And I'm sure a CO-OP would have volunteers running and maintaining that software. Like I stated, the only real cost would be the hosting. I suppose the CO-OP could purchase it's own web server, thus saving on the charges to have another company host their online entity. Regardless, own a server or lease a server, there's probably going to be some kind of cost.

As well, web hosting really needn't be all that expensive for a small site. The expense comes when high amounts of traffic and large files are burning bandwidth. If your desired CO-OP can spread the cost among your member base, then BONUS!

I'm not downplaying your idea. I am simply letting you know that some money must be paid to host the thing.

[snot]

5. Sorry if I misunderstood; I thought you were stating an objection, but perhaps not?

[blogslut]

8. It's all good

I was being practical. Sometimes I'm too practical in my responses and people confuse that for hostility. :)

[glowing]

6. I suppose this is a way to look at these things, on the other hand, why

should be so affraid to connect to one another. Why should we be affraid to have friends from around the world and accross the street. Its much harder to think we could possibly go and just bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. Secrets are lies. Why live a lie. Obviously, I'm not going to post a web blog of me and my hubby in the bedroom, but why should I be afraid to be who I am. I guess that's the big statement... This is me, Fuck you or be my friend. Of course, one should be careful posting a picture of something that they are doing that's illegal (like the college kids and their party pics that may cost them a job). However, I don't mind showing off my child while also being a friend of Code Pink. Why hide? Why not be who you are? Why be scared? When you are, you are not free.

[snot]

9. I'm all for connecting; I just want CITIZENS to

own their own info, not governments or corps that will likely use our info against us.

Here's the thing: we need a balance of power. We need at least as much power over our governments and the corporations who have effectively taken over governments in the West, as they have over us.

As Francis Bacon said, "knowledge is power." A balance of power requires a balance of knowledge.

Right now, these Big Brothers have a heck of a lot more knowledge about us than we have about them. In my view, if anything, it should be the reverse.

IMHO, we need more transparency about what they're doing, and more control over our own info.

[glowing]

10. This I would agree with.. But most of the I agree to issues are because they

don't want to get sued, and because they sell out a lot of commercial space to make money.

I do agree that we need a better balance of power. Our govt is currently very corrupt and bought. It forgets its job is to be of value and use to The People. AND watching over business for corruption should be one of those entities. There is a lot of work required in a democracy. Its been left unattended for much to long.

[anigbrowl]

11. Nobody is forcing you to use these services

I do have a facebook profile, but it doesn't really contain a great deal of information about me and I don't make heavy use of it. Still, nothing prevents you setting up a non-commercial competitor. How many people you can get to sign up to is another question. Large entities don't run themselves, financially speaking - you're still going to need to hire accountants, programmers, project managers and so forth and those peoples' services cost money in rough proportion to their skills over the long term.

[snot]

14. that's why we need a coop or union. But the first step is opening people's eyes to the problem and

the solution.

To back up, I rather doubt some of these things are actually all that people-intensive -- I suspect that once you've got the hardware/software set up, the thing mostly runs itself, esp. if you don't need a staff of psychologists constantly figuring out new ways to sucker the users. Has anyone here ever spoken with a human FB employee?

(And no, I don't use FB. But I happen to be concerned with the welfare of humanity at large, in addition to my own.)

[JVS]

12. The KGB would have had a great FB type system had they made it to our time.

[snot]

13. THANK YOU.