December 2011
1 post
25 tags
Good Luck Occupiers; Here’s How “Facebook for...
Elsewhere on this blog, I’ve written about how the next generation social networking site should be built to help high-risk activists. If there are any Occupy Wall Street activists who are working on this project, this previous post may be of interest. They should also feel free to contact me or others at Stanford’s Program on Liberation Technology, who would be happy to assist in any...
24 tags
The Psychological Biases That Keep Silicon...
A recent post by Michael Arrington shows that human beings — no matter how smart — still fall prey to some of the most basic psychological biases that have been with us since the dawn of humanity, despite claims by some futurists such as Ray Kurzweil that human beings are destined to evolve into supernatural intelligent creatures simply because they have computational power...
November 2011
5 posts
30 tags
How the Next Generation Diaspora* Should Be Built...
An online privacy activist recently asked me: Suppose you were to build the next-generation Diaspora* — i.e., a secure, private, and decentralized social network — how would you go about it?
The question is an important one, especially considering that many projects preceded Diaspora* but failed to gain traction, along with the skepticism with which Diaspora* has been met in hacker...
30 tags
A Proposal for a New Internet-Driven,...
Organizations started as a form of spontaneous order. One had to undertake a task that was too large for one’s self, so one would associate with others who could help achieve that task. Alternatively, one would perform a task out of enjoyment or necessity that would somehow grow and evolve to the point that it required organization to perform effectively. The former became...
24 tags
The Story of Online Social Networks
I. Background
Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., with more than 1,400 employees and 500 million active users in July 2010. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace. According to comScore, Facebook is the...
4 tags
Remembering Ilya...
Hi All, Thanks for reaching out to me privately to express your condolences for Ilya Zhitomirskiy’s passing. It means a lot to all of us who were so close to Ilya. As most of you know, Ilya was a strong believer of the Liberationtech vision. Ilya had a contagious energy and enthusiasm for using technology to promote democracy, human rights, activism, and make a difference in the world. He...