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Post "Good Google," Who Will Defend the Open Web?

Posted by timothy on from the eff-and-fsf-should-be-on-the-team dept.

psykocrime writes "The crazy kids at Fogbeam Labs have started a discussion about Google and their relationship with the Open Web, and questioning who will step up to defend these principles, even as Google seem to be abdicating their position as such a champion. Some candidates mentioned include Yahoo, IBM, Red Hat, Mozilla, Microsoft and The Wikimedia Foundation, among others. The question is, what organization(s) have both the necessary clout and the required ethical principles, to truly champion the Open Web, in the face of commercial efforts which are clearly inimical to Open Source, Open Standards, Libre Culture and other elements of an Open Web?"

5 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Does Vint Cerf still work at Google? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because I would have thought a dude with the title "Chief Internet Evangelist" would have something to say about this.

  2. Like Politics by Bigby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even if such a mythical company existed, you can't pick that one because ideas change; people change; companies change. For the same reason, you can't grant party X the power to do M, because party Y will use that power to do N. What may seem "good" now will never remain that way.

    1. Re:Like Politics by Looker_Device · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The EFF has been pretty consistent over the years. Perhaps they lack the clout, but they certainly have remained pretty steadfast for a long time now.

      --
      Your political party doesn't care about your rights and only represents corporate interests.
  3. We will by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the grassroots don't organize then all will be lost. There is too much money to be made closing it all up, overcommercializing it, and using it to extract maximum revenue from compliant consumers.

    Unfortunately, I don't think we will. Too many people have been blinded by the merchants of "cool" to see the true cost in terms of freedom and privacy which come with drinking the Apple/Google kool-aid.

    We have to stop doing business with those who close it up. That means a full boycott of DRM and paid content. That means eschewing privacy-stripping "app stores" on locked down platforms for sideloaded FOSS. That means running strict ad blockers to choke the funding stream and make being intrusive scumbags a bad business model.

    The web is turning into a hybrid shopping mall/movie theater. Don't like it? Stop funding it. Stop being a source of revenue and eyeballs.

    I'm sure many of those who read this post will complain about the direction of the web then head right back to the app store to buy something they don't need on a platform they don't control.

    The "web" is no longer what is in a browser. It now extends to all Internet-connected services. Locked down paid apps on restricted, DRM-friendly platforms are going to replace open, standards-compliant pages, but only if we let them.

  4. Re:There's only one company on that list... by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yahoo will rise again. They clearly grasp the significance of cloud computing, which is why they've collected all their employees in one place.