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Lost In the Cloud

Posted by Soulskill on from the stormy-weather dept.

Colonel Korn writes "Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain suggests in an Op-Ed piece that the seemingly inevitable move toward the often locked-down cloud is stifling innovation and threatening our privacy: '... many software developers who once would have been writing whatever they wanted for PCs are simply developing less adventurous, less subversive, less game-changing code under the watchful eyes of Facebook and Apple. If the market settles into a handful of gated cloud communities whose proprietors control the availability of new code, the time may come to ensure that their platforms do not discriminate. Such a demand could take many forms, from an outright regulatory requirement to a more subtle set of incentives — tax breaks or liability relief — that nudge companies to maintain the kind of openness that earlier allowed them a level playing field on which they could lure users from competing, mighty incumbents. We've only just begun to measure this problem, even as we fly directly into the cloud. That's not a reason to turn around. But we must make sure the cloud does not hinder the creation of revolutionary software that, like the Web itself, can seem esoteric at first but utterly necessary later.'"

6 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Internet Hype Machine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or, you know, developers could still write code that runs on one computer and do whatever they feel like doing.

    Somehow, I don't think that Facebook is going to be the technology that drives computing forard...

  2. So lets see here... by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Such a demand could take many forms, from an outright regulatory requirement to a more subtle set of incentives -- tax breaks or liability relief -- that nudge companies to maintain the kind of openness that earlier allowed them a level playing field on which they could lure users from competing, mighty incumbents

    That is in a word, stupid. The thing about online services is, there is little requirements to entry and they are easy to change from one service to another. Its trivial for me to switch from Facebook to any number of different social networks. Same with search engines, etc. All it takes is simply replacing the URL. Regulation will only stifle innovation.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:So lets see here... by jambarama · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its trivial for me to switch from Facebook to any number of different social networks.

      Really? Is it trivial to transfer all your uploaded pictures/videos, friend list, and history to your new social network provider? Now is it trivial for you, as a tech enthusiast, or trivial for a normal facebook user? Or did you mean that it is trivial to log into some social networking site other than facebook? Unless your data can follow you, or you're willing to recreate/lose that data, you're locked in.

      Services not always easy to switch away from. Switching search engines is one thing, changing your email provider is entirely another. Encouraging data portability and compatibility is not a bad thing, especially when the encouragement is relief for liability incurred by making that data portable.

    2. Re:So lets see here... by Fnkmaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well that's misleading. In general, the switching costs for online services are relatively low, but a social networking site has higher switching costs than many due to the network effects (the more users on the site, the more useful/valuable the site is).

      Of course, that switching cost isn't as high as the venture capitalists may believe, as we saw with Friendster, then MySpace - as soon as the "cool" factor disappears, migration can happen en masse. The key is that many individuals must essentially cooperate to move to another social networking site. Or some subset of "leaders" have to migrate, creating the sense that the new social networking site is the cool, "in" place to be now and the old site was yesterday's thing.

      Now that people see their parents and even grandparents logging into Facebook, I wonder if it will eventually change the perception of Facebook and lead to its eventual replacement.

      Also, people seem to be more likely to "add" than to switch outright, at least at first, and then simply abandon the old site when they perceive that their friends have abandoned it too.

    3. Re:So lets see here... by wjousts · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think you just proved jambarama's point (especially for the "normal" facebook user) by giving three different links to a mess of different services in a vain attempt to show how "trivial" it is. Well done defeating your own point, it saves everybody else the time.

  3. Capitalism at its best by greatica · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let em' stifle all they want. Somebody else will make another cloud that doesn't stifle...or just build their own platform.