OT: Re: Younger generations preferring social media(esque) interactions.

Wed Mar 24 15:08:32 UTC 2021

On 3/24/21 01:00, Sec Lists wrote:

>
> ...only to end up with yet another account at yet another data mining 
> (future) monopolist butchering standards... I'm all for moving with 
> the flow and embrace new things as long as it's based on open 
> standards, open protocols, does not lock people in to a specific 
> platform, etc., is decentralised and federated and gives users the 
> choice (e.g. choice of MUA / MTA, or XMPP client, etc.). The trend to 
> force everything to web-based or only THAT particular app is a 
> fundamental step backwards towards significant less of choice on the 
> internet.
>
> To just give in (or up) and say, well, that's what the youngsters now 
> prefer is to move even more towards a world dominated by a few global 
> monopolistic players who don't give a darn about open standards, open 
> protocols, not locking people in, decentralisation and fedaration...
> And youngsters - as with anything in life - need to be educated and 
> made aware of that (spoken as a former teacher).

It's a bit difficult, nowadays, to push water up that hill, because the 
(content) folk who are able to chart this new Internet that has slowly 
developed over the last decade simply have too much money. A lot more 
money than classic telco and Hollywood have ever had, combined.

Add to that, the majority of Internet users on this earth (the kids 
included, but more so) simply have no time to respect the purist 
ideologies of the engineers and operators of old. My American friend 
used to say, "They just want their MTV". In 2021, they just want their 
app to work, and your ability to win their hearts and minds over lies in 
the first 5 - 10 seconds that they install and try to use your app. They 
don't care how many hours you've slaved getting it to production - which 
is why they are constantly flipping between apps and screens; in 
constant search of that (perceived) value.

The kids (and many people nowadays) don't want to know about the 
infrastructure. Infrastructure is this thing that stands in the middle 
of them and the service they want to so desperately and quickly get to. 
Have you ever heard the kids saying anything good about mobile data 
prices, signal quality or the connectivity they and fixed line providers 
deliver to them? All they will say is, "My Internet is down", and the 
reason may be as simple as 8.8.8.8 having a sneeze, which has nothing to 
do with the underlying infrastructure they are connected to.

This horse has left the stable. There's no putting it back in. Our only 
hope is to modify our belief culture into what we perceive to be of 
"value", because that is all the kids care about. Not your precious MUA, 
MTA or big iron shelf with the line cards it holds :-).

And yes, you could take on the content folk that are enabling this, but 
Australia is a good example of how that can go.

Is unseating them insurmountable? No. Is it hard? Certainly.

Funny, I was speaking at the previous AfPIF virtual peering conference 
about this very topic, just yesterday:

https://www.afpif.org/virtual-peering-series-africa/death-of-transit-the-evolving-role-of-ixps/

For me, it comes down to leadership - in government at regulation, where 
they MUST create conducive entrepreneurial environments that allow local 
intellect to create alternatives to the global content folk (just look 
at WeChat in China).

And secondly, leadership within infrastructure (fixed and mobile 
providers) to understand that the kids and the world don't see value in 
their product today. That infrastructure is just a means toward the real 
value, and if infrastructure wants to survive, we need to insert 
ourselves into the real value action, practically and deliberately.

Mark.