This is a great example of how warped the Silicon Valley world is. Wordpress has something like 300m unique readers. They empower a LOT of blogs. They book a little under $1m a month in revs. But that’s not good enough for Silicon Valley. Money is more important than anything else to these people. I say FUCK YOU! The content, the ideas, the software is what’s important - not the money! I say CONGRATS to Matt Mullenweg - keep doing what you’re doing!
FreedomLeaks - wise words from Doc Searls on others on WikiLeaks
Congrats to Scott Rourke, OneCommunity and the Cleveland Housing Network (and Pahniti Tosuskri) on getting machines into the hands of 75+ graduates of the ‘Sustainable Broadband Adopter’ program.
This is broadband stimulus money being put to work!
Date: Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 | Time: 2:27 pm Tags: Add a comment
The battle over our data has been raging for years. I remember Michael Arrington cynically remarking from the front row of LeWeb08 that “user’s don’t want their data, they’re happy being locked into Facebook.”
1. It’s what users want, and it’s the right thing to do.
2. Facebook is so large now that health-of-ecosystem and user needs must be considered when Facebook makes product and policy decisions.
3. They’re lying to press and users, even today, about their motivations for retaining data. This is not about protecting users.
4. The data export tool they released last month is a red herring.
5. They have a very small window of opportunity to do this, before Attorneys General and class action litigators see too big of an opportunity to pass up.
Right on dude! Welcome to the open web.
It must be weird for Dave Recordon right now. He’s “our man” on the inside at Facebook, in charge of their ‘open standards’ efforts. As much as Dave does the right thing, none of that obliterates the harsh reality that Arrington raps out:
That’s the same argument that they used two years ago with Scoble. But since then Facebook has been quite willing to allow “mass exports” of “friends’ private email addresses” if the terms are right. They did it with Microsoft, they’re doing it with Yahoo, and possibly other partners. Facebook violated their own privacy policy with the Microsoft relationship. The policy has since been updated.
The truth is Facebook doesn’t see this data as your friends’ private email addresses. They consider it their data. They own it. Literally. So when they say “A person has no more right to mass export all of her friends’ private email addresses than she does to mass export all of her friends’ private photo albums,” what they really need to do is add “, unless it’s with a partner that’s making it worth our while.”
What happens next?
I gotta believe Zuck is smart enough to know when to back off - cause of this movie release and everything else is fucking with the grand scheme! He’ll still be worth just as much, Facebook will still give Google a run for it’s money - and all of the investors and employees will still make out like bandits.
Ehat amuses me the most - is how public and real this has become. This is not me ranting at some conference where people then walk up to me and ask: “ahnd zo, vat ist die bizneez model fur zuch openness?”
This is a great example of how warped the Silicon Valley world is. Wordpress has something like 300m unique readers. They empower a LOT of blogs. They book a little under $1m a month in revs. But that’s not good enough for Silicon Valley. Money is more important than anything else to these people. I say FUCK YOU! The content, the ideas, the software is what’s important - not the money! I say CONGRATS to Matt Mullenweg - keep doing what you’re doing!
One way to lock municipalities into your solution - and fight off Cisco - 
