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Comment by wslh

2 days ago

Funny how this rhymes with something I wrote in 2011[1][2]: a "universal spreadsheet" where people share not just data but the transformations over it. The pieces are more real now: you can actually free your data from closed services (e.g. Instagram), orchestrate it on something like ATProto, and LLMs make a great new kind of "function" for the system.

[1] https://blog.databigbang.com/ideas-egont-a-web-orchestration...

[2] https://blog.databigbang.com/egont-part-ii/

Most people right now do not want their social media data in world/anonymous-read mode nor want Ai accessing it and doing things with it.

  • Too late for that

    • There's always the future. I stopped using ATProto after the revelations that they hid their VC raise from the community for almost a year (and some other things, straw eventually breaks a camel's back) - and almost all social media, which is a (mild) trend aiui.

      Setting aside contemporary political dynamics, there is also the possibility for robust data rights laws that can change the game.

  • Nothing about this requires world-readable data, privacy can be its own layer. FriendFeed[1] did this well back in the day: it aggregated your feeds and let you control who saw each one.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FriendFeed

    • I agree, that's just not where ATProtocol is (currently only available in world/anonymous-read mode). Personally, I find the permission proposal rather lacking (ACL vs the advancements / learning since) and user requested features will require building auth enhancements at the app level, thereby creating a form of centralization.

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