*/walmart convenience, and cloud computing.
Walmart.
Im just being honest...the place makes my skin crawl.
I find that the times when I am semi-forced to shop there, i spend the whole time trying to plan the most efficient way to navigate the bad floorplan to get what I came there for and get out as fast as I can. And make sure you avoid eye contact with the employees, or they will pull you into the swamp of shattered dreams...."dont follow the lights!"
Yes I know Im generalizing.
Honestly, I think the thing that bothers me the most about walmart is that it seems void of passion, creativity, uniqeness, and representation of personal industry. In a way because of its centralized model, it almost seems to take on a form of giant dream killing opressor. Individuals who work there make low wages, and have little opportunity for personal expression, and the act of bringing personal creativity is viewed as insubordination. It is one mans vision, built on the backs of others. To me, it is the very best representation of the very worst of un-restrained capitalism.
As an entity walmarts seems to provide inexpensive products by undermining evenly distributed national growth as a whole. The small town I grew up in has continually resisted walmart's attempts to build a mega store, and have so far been successful...even when walmart has employeed propaganda tactics to try to convince people that the mega store will "bring jobs" and "benefit the community". And while there may be some benefits from any company creating jobs in a community, the quality of the jobs, and the long term empowering effect on a communities economy should be considered as well. Centralization rarely benefits a community in the long term. Decentralization on the other hand provides the basic infastructure for community growth that is community powered, and community sustained... if the people themselves are willing to be industrious, and value the freedom that they have over consumer minded convienience. So while the immediate benefit of getting cheap products can provide me with a short term benefit, in the long term, by shopping there, I am strengthening the very thing that will eventually undermine community prosperity.
Why the hell am I talking about walmart? Because I had to go there recently, and was reminded of all of the reasons why i dislike what it represents, and because in a strange way I realized that much of what bothers me about some of the current cloud computing movement and the current mega-ISP movement to steal the freedom of internet for money reminds me of shopping at walmart.
Dont get me wrong, I dont deny the convienience of could computing. It is really nice to be able to access your data from anywhere, at any time. In some cases, it is an invaluable tool. But I cant help but see the paralells of the trend outcome...centralization. You might think its a strech to assume that 9 times out of 10, the more power an entity has, the less connection they have to the concerns of the individual, resulting in a form of oppression, but I think that history provides a strong argument otherwise. True innovation and success do not limit anothers ability to be industrious. It doesn't centralize under a hierarchical structure and punish personal creativity as insubordinate. It creates the groundwork for others to go further than the inventor ever dreamed. The GNU/Linux community enjoys a proven example of this daily. But for a long time, Linux required a strong commitment to even use, since it was not geared toward convienience at the expense of freedom, but functionality with the benefit of freedom...and often at the expense of convienience. But as use has grown, so has the developer base. And as a result, we now see a great deal of convienience and ease of use. Quite honestly, for most computer users, I cant fathom why anyone would pay hundereds of dollars for an operating system that is less secure, and really does few things better than say Ubuntu, or Linux Mint.
To put it more clearly, I really would love to see more serious community development going into software systems that make personal data accessable to the internet without centralizing the data. The Opera browser's Unite functionality is a decent model, but it is very proprietary and does little to make the root tools available to the community as a whole, and in a way limits true and lasting web innovation. I know that I am not the only one to feel this way, and look forward to seeing the solutions that emerge.
But on the forefront is the looming threat of an internet that is controled by corporations. If this is not stopped, or if solutions are not found to bypass the artificial blockagaes that will be put in place, then the internet as we know it will begin to resemble cable TV. Exorbitant prices for centraly controled crap programing, and information that is guided and shaped by the central network. This, in my opionion, would quite literally be a crime against humanity. One that should be met with prison time if implemented. If the artificial blockages are put in place, the next step will be to slowly change language until the free flow of information is viewed by the mass population as purchasable packages, that must be protected by law. In short, we will have sold ourselves up the river.
I really dont have any specific solutions. I wish I did. I would be working on them rather than writing this when I should be sleeping. But its worth talking and thinking about in the hopes that people with greater skill and vision than I will take action before its too late, and the next generation is forced to "pirate" what we now enjoy so freely.
share
Im just being honest...the place makes my skin crawl.
I find that the times when I am semi-forced to shop there, i spend the whole time trying to plan the most efficient way to navigate the bad floorplan to get what I came there for and get out as fast as I can. And make sure you avoid eye contact with the employees, or they will pull you into the swamp of shattered dreams...."dont follow the lights!"
Yes I know Im generalizing.
Honestly, I think the thing that bothers me the most about walmart is that it seems void of passion, creativity, uniqeness, and representation of personal industry. In a way because of its centralized model, it almost seems to take on a form of giant dream killing opressor. Individuals who work there make low wages, and have little opportunity for personal expression, and the act of bringing personal creativity is viewed as insubordination. It is one mans vision, built on the backs of others. To me, it is the very best representation of the very worst of un-restrained capitalism.
As an entity walmarts seems to provide inexpensive products by undermining evenly distributed national growth as a whole. The small town I grew up in has continually resisted walmart's attempts to build a mega store, and have so far been successful...even when walmart has employeed propaganda tactics to try to convince people that the mega store will "bring jobs" and "benefit the community". And while there may be some benefits from any company creating jobs in a community, the quality of the jobs, and the long term empowering effect on a communities economy should be considered as well. Centralization rarely benefits a community in the long term. Decentralization on the other hand provides the basic infastructure for community growth that is community powered, and community sustained... if the people themselves are willing to be industrious, and value the freedom that they have over consumer minded convienience. So while the immediate benefit of getting cheap products can provide me with a short term benefit, in the long term, by shopping there, I am strengthening the very thing that will eventually undermine community prosperity.
Why the hell am I talking about walmart? Because I had to go there recently, and was reminded of all of the reasons why i dislike what it represents, and because in a strange way I realized that much of what bothers me about some of the current cloud computing movement and the current mega-ISP movement to steal the freedom of internet for money reminds me of shopping at walmart.
Dont get me wrong, I dont deny the convienience of could computing. It is really nice to be able to access your data from anywhere, at any time. In some cases, it is an invaluable tool. But I cant help but see the paralells of the trend outcome...centralization. You might think its a strech to assume that 9 times out of 10, the more power an entity has, the less connection they have to the concerns of the individual, resulting in a form of oppression, but I think that history provides a strong argument otherwise. True innovation and success do not limit anothers ability to be industrious. It doesn't centralize under a hierarchical structure and punish personal creativity as insubordinate. It creates the groundwork for others to go further than the inventor ever dreamed. The GNU/Linux community enjoys a proven example of this daily. But for a long time, Linux required a strong commitment to even use, since it was not geared toward convienience at the expense of freedom, but functionality with the benefit of freedom...and often at the expense of convienience. But as use has grown, so has the developer base. And as a result, we now see a great deal of convienience and ease of use. Quite honestly, for most computer users, I cant fathom why anyone would pay hundereds of dollars for an operating system that is less secure, and really does few things better than say Ubuntu, or Linux Mint.
To put it more clearly, I really would love to see more serious community development going into software systems that make personal data accessable to the internet without centralizing the data. The Opera browser's Unite functionality is a decent model, but it is very proprietary and does little to make the root tools available to the community as a whole, and in a way limits true and lasting web innovation. I know that I am not the only one to feel this way, and look forward to seeing the solutions that emerge.
But on the forefront is the looming threat of an internet that is controled by corporations. If this is not stopped, or if solutions are not found to bypass the artificial blockagaes that will be put in place, then the internet as we know it will begin to resemble cable TV. Exorbitant prices for centraly controled crap programing, and information that is guided and shaped by the central network. This, in my opionion, would quite literally be a crime against humanity. One that should be met with prison time if implemented. If the artificial blockages are put in place, the next step will be to slowly change language until the free flow of information is viewed by the mass population as purchasable packages, that must be protected by law. In short, we will have sold ourselves up the river.
I really dont have any specific solutions. I wish I did. I would be working on them rather than writing this when I should be sleeping. But its worth talking and thinking about in the hopes that people with greater skill and vision than I will take action before its too late, and the next generation is forced to "pirate" what we now enjoy so freely.
share