All of us who have engineering talent should think about what we can do to make it easier for people to set up their own presence on an international online network such as the Internet. If that means rethinking some of the essentials of IP, TCP, DNS, HTTP or HTML then we should do it, if it makes it easier for people to get away from the walled gardens.
I've had my own domains since 1999. I used to think it was easy to set up a blog. When I was young I thought it was really fun to write basic HTML. I've been online for many years. But I've come to realize that a lot of things that I found easy are a bit too much for most people. In particular, paying something like $35 a year for a domain name, and maybe $5 a month for online hosting, is way, way, way beyond the commitment most people want to make.
So I wonder if there are ways this can be made simpler or cheaper?
I enjoy online conversation. And comments people post to my blog. I very much enjoy having full control over my own blog:
http://www.smashcompany.com/
I'd like everyone to have the experience that I have. But we need to find a way to make it much easier, otherwise the walled gardens will still be the default even 25 years from now.
I've had my own domains since 1999. I used to think it was easy to set up a blog. When I was young I thought it was really fun to write basic HTML. I've been online for many years. But I've come to realize that a lot of things that I found easy are a bit too much for most people. In particular, paying something like $35 a year for a domain name, and maybe $5 a month for online hosting, is way, way, way beyond the commitment most people want to make.
So I wonder if there are ways this can be made simpler or cheaper?
I enjoy online conversation. And comments people post to my blog. I very much enjoy having full control over my own blog: http://www.smashcompany.com/
I'd like everyone to have the experience that I have. But we need to find a way to make it much easier, otherwise the walled gardens will still be the default even 25 years from now.