Anil Dash posted a scathing article this morning about Facebook Usernames, the gold rush that will kick off at 10 p.m. MDT and allow Facebook's users to register for a Facebook URL that will look something like http://www.facebook.com/username.
Neat, huh? Yeah, I suppose, but as Dash points out, repeatedly, in his article, this is nothing new. We can all go out and register and own, and therefore control, our very own domain names.
Granted, a lot of the domain names you might want are already taken, but by the time you get around to registering your Facebook username, the one you want will probably be taken too.
Part of this is the difference between the open and the closed Web. Facebook is a closed system. You have to agree to its terms of service and play by its rules, or else you're out. Sure, the user experience is uniform, the site is relatively safe and people more or less enjoy their experience there -- but it's still a walled garden.
Now the open web, the Web outside of the social networks, where people host their own blogs, own their own domains, run their own e-mail servers, manage their own databases... That is where innovation will come from, not from willingly submitting ourselves to restrictive (even if we don't realize it) terms of service.
A generation of Web users who only play in the walled communities will forget what it's like to be in the open Web, where they can experiment with new technologies, explore the limits of what the technologies can do and create new products and new ways to make themselves and other rich.
In other words, the closed Web, though safe, will stifle our Net creativity, slowly, but surely.
Facebook and its kin have a price, even if their Web sites are free.
Michael Becker has been blogging about academia, digital culture and journalism since 2005. He is the Web editor of the
One Comment
“A generation of Web users who only play in the walled communities will forget what it’s like to be in the open Web, where they can experiment with new technologies, explore the limits of what the technologies can do and create new products and new ways to make themselves and other rich.”
Totally. About a year ago I had a myspace account and I got rid of it after I realized it was stifling my ability to write anything of substance and the formatting looked so juvenile. Yuck. I was also blind to any new technology other than the “blog” publishing offered on that site. Confession: I do use Blogger now (which is essentially the same thing) because I’m lazy and like the convenience. However, it still allows me some technological creativity …whatever helps me sleep at night . . . right? Ha!
“Now the open web. . . where people host their own … That is where innovation will come from, . . . ”
Indeed . . . you rock on with your bad blog hosting self!!
Peace,
Nik