Decentralized networks shift data and software closer to users

Evidence

Dissatisfaction with this standard-issue water cooler has fueled the movement toward a decentralized web, which instead of private companies and servers makes use of peer-to-peer networks and open-source software. The goal is not only for users to own their own data, but to shift that data and software closer to their end points of use. Mastodon, for example, is a federated social network of “instances,” each using free software on a community-run server whose users can nonetheless communicate with those in other instances. As its creators point out, Mastodon can never go bankrupt, be sold, or be blocked by governments, because it consists of little other than open-source software. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 581

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is it true Mastodon ‘can never go bankrupt’ or be blocked? The claim seems overstated—worth checking whether Odell accepts it uncritically.
• XREF: connects to: Closed source software is a Freirean banking method that forecloses user modification rights — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 525; Building proprietary hardware and analytics drives platform centralisation — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 86; The cloud centralizes data ownership in corporations that earlier internet models distributed. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 183 (+5 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Closed source software is a Freirean banking method that forecloses user modification rights — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 525; Building proprietary hardware and analytics drives platform centralisation — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 86; The cloud centralizes data ownership in corporations that earlier internet models distributed. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 183 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The cloud centralizes data ownership in corporations that earlier internet models distributed. #complicates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 183
• Building proprietary hardware and analytics drives platform centralisation #complicates (0.80) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 86