Maybe the point is not saving the web anymore, but ensuring that applications built on top of the Internet (like the web or the email protocol) are free and open. For years, the web used to be the only part of the internet visible to the final user, at least for the most part. Even email was often accessed through a web interface. Now Facebook and other social networks are new systems that run on top of the Internet, and even have a web interface too, but are fundamentally different from the web. Contrary to the web, these systems have a single central authority, and are not designed for enabling a free interchange of information between peers, because all the social interactions are moderated by the central authority. This is even more concerning because the business model of all those top 10 apps is based on exploiting the user data, so privacy in unavoidably under a threat. And these systems are not primarily accessed from a web browser, but from native apps. So does the battle for the browser even make sense anymore?
Instead, maybe Mozilla should expand the scope from just the web to other Internet applications (arguably Thunderbird is already an example of that). The usage data in that article shows that the web is not necessary the most relevant application that runs on top of Internet anymore, as it is just a fraction of the Internet traffic. A possible course of action could be working on ensuring all these new applications have open standards. If we already have working alternatives to gmail, like protonmail, is because email is an open standards technology with a publicly documented protocol. We don't have such clear alternatives to Facebook for the mainstream Internet user, because Facebook is mostly a closed system. The highest threat to privacy between those 10 apps are social networks IMHO. In that field Mozilla could work developing open standards, and use that to connect GNU social compatible networks (maybe OStatus is already the most suitable standard) like Mastodon, with mainstream networks like Facebook. Mozilla could also work on the analogous of a web browser for that field, which is a high quality native app for any social media that supports that open protocol, and also on connecting Facebook and mainstream social networks to that protocol through their public APIs. That would be similar to using Thunderbird for accessing your gmail or yahoo mail account, a kind of hootsuite but based on open standards, and bridging different social networks. A combined timeline for different social networks, and that allows to simultaneously publish in all of them from a single place. That could help transitioning out from the current single authority model for social networks. That would be the social networking analogous of sending an email to a gmail account from my protonmail account, optionally encrypting the email.
Besides social networks, these 10 apps included streaming media players, messaging, email, and maps. For streaming media, something like K.im (https://betanews.com/2017/08/31/k-im-bitcache-piracy/amp/) could be a suitable path, with Mozilla playing the role of ensuring open standardization and high quality open source implementations.
TL;DR: Maybe Mozilla should broad their scope beyond the web, and work to ensure open standards and high quality native apps for the new systems built on top of the Internet, but beyond the web, like social networks or streaming media services.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe the point is not saving the web anymore, but ensuring that applications built on top of the Internet (like the web or the email protocol) are free and open. For years, the web used to be the only part of the internet visible to the final user, at least for the most part. Even email was often accessed through a web interface. Now Facebook and other social networks are new systems that run on top of the Internet, and even have a web interface too, but are fundamentally different from the web. Contrary to the web, these systems have a single central authority, and are not designed for enabling a free interchange of information between peers, because all the social interactions are moderated by the central authority. This is even more concerning because the business model of all those top 10 apps is based on exploiting the user data, so privacy in unavoidably under a threat. And these systems are not primarily accessed from a web browser, but from native apps. So does the battle for the browser even make sense anymore? Instead, maybe Mozilla should expand the scope from just the web to other Internet applications (arguably Thunderbird is already an example of that). The usage data in that article shows that the web is not necessary the most relevant application that runs on top of Internet anymore, as it is just a fraction of the Internet traffic. A possible course of action could be working on ensuring all these new applications have open standards. If we already have working alternatives to gmail, like protonmail, is because email is an open standards technology with a publicly documented protocol. We don't have such clear alternatives to Facebook for the mainstream Internet user, because Facebook is mostly a closed system. The highest threat to privacy between those 10 apps are social networks IMHO. In that field Mozilla could work developing open standards, and use that to connect GNU social compatible networks (maybe OStatus is already the most suitable standard) like Mastodon, with mainstream networks like Facebook. Mozilla could also work on the analogous of a web browser for that field, which is a high quality native app for any social media that supports that open protocol, and also on connecting Facebook and mainstream social networks to that protocol through their public APIs. That would be similar to using Thunderbird for accessing your gmail or yahoo mail account, a kind of hootsuite but based on open standards, and bridging different social networks. A combined timeline for different social networks, and that allows to simultaneously publish in all of them from a single place. That could help transitioning out from the current single authority model for social networks. That would be the social networking analogous of sending an email to a gmail account from my protonmail account, optionally encrypting the email. Besides social networks, these 10 apps included streaming media players, messaging, email, and maps. For streaming media, something like K.im (https://betanews.com/2017/08/31/k-im-bitcache-piracy/amp/) could be a suitable path, with Mozilla playing the role of ensuring open standardization and high quality open source implementations. TL;DR: Maybe Mozilla should broad their scope beyond the web, and work to ensure open standards and high quality native apps for the new systems built on top of the Internet, but beyond the web, like social networks or streaming media services.