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.
