[Plura-list] Cloudburst

[Cory Doctorow]

Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/03/there-is-no-cloud/

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

Today's links

* Cloudburst: The timely surge of "local-first computing."

* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

* This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🥀 Cloudburst

Enshittification isn't inevitable: under different conditions and constraints, the old, good internet could have given way to a new, good internet. Enshittification is the result of specific policy choices: encouraging monopolies; enabling high-speed, digital shell games; and blocking interoperability.

First we allowed companies to buy up their competitors. Google is the shining example here: having made one good product (search), the then fielded an essentially unbroken string of in-house flops, but it didn't matter, because they were able to buy their way to glory: video, mobile, ad-tech, server management, docs, navigation...They're not Willy Wonka's idea factory, they're Rich Uncle Pennybags, making up for their lack of invention by buying out everyone else:

https://locusmag.com/2022/03/cory-doctorow-vertically-challenged/

But this acquisition-fueled growth isn't unique to tech. Every administration since Reagan (but not Biden! more on this later) has chipped away at antitrust enforcement, so that every sector has undergone an orgy of mergers, from athletic shoes to sea freight, eyeglasses to pro wrestling:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/09/the-importance-of-competition-for-the-american-economy/

But tech is different, because digital is *flexible* in a way that analog can never be. Tech companies can "twiddle" the back-ends of their clouds to change the rules of the business from moment to moment, in a high-speed shell-game that can make it impossible to know what kind of deal you're getting:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/27/knob-jockeys/#bros-be-twiddlin

To make things worse, *users* are *banned* from twiddling. The thicket of rules we call IP ensure that twiddling is only done against users, never *for* them. Reverse-engineering, scraping, bots - these can all be blocked with legal threats and suits and even criminal sanctions, even if they're being done for legitimate purposes:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Enhittification isn't inevitable but if we let companies buy all their competitors, if we let them twiddle us with every hour that God sends, if we make it illegal to twiddle back in self-defense, we will get twiddled to death. When a company can operate without the discipline of competition, nor of privacy law, nor of labor law, nor of fair trading law, with the US government standing by to punish any rival who alters the logic of their service, then enshittification is the *utterly foreseeable* outcome.

To understand how our technology gets distorted by these policy choices, consider "The Cloud." Once, "the cloud" was just a white-board glyph, a way to show that some part of a software's logic would touch some commodified, fungible, interchangeable appendage of the internet. Today, "The Cloud" is a flashing warning sign, the harbinger of enshittification.

When your image-editing tools live on your computer, your files are *yours*. But once Adobe moves your software to The Cloud, your critical, labor-intensive, unrecreatable images are purely contingent. At at time, without notice, Adobe can twiddle the back end and literally *steal the colors out of your own files*:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

The finance sector *loves* The Cloud. Add "The Cloud" to a product and profits (money you get for selling something) can turn into *rents* (money you get for *owning* something). Profits can be eroded by competition, but rents are evergreen:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

No wonder The Cloud has seeped into every corner of our lives. Remember your first iPod? Adding music to it was trivial: double click any music file to import it into iTunes, then plug in your iPod and presto, synched! Today, even sophisticated technology users struggle to "side load" files onto their mobile devices. Instead, the mobile duopoly - Apple and Google, who bought their way to mobile glory and have converged on the same rent-seeking business practices, down to the percentages they charge - want you to get your files from The Cloud, via their apps. This isn't for technological reasons, it's a business imperative: 30% of every transaction that involves an app gets creamed off by either Apple or Google in pure rents:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell/posts/3788112

And yet, The Cloud is undeniably useful. Having your files synch across multiple devices, including your collaborators' devices, with built-in tools for resolving conflicting changes, is *amazing*. Indeed, this feat is the holy grail of networked tools, because it's how *programmers* write all the software we use, including software in The Cloud.

If you want to know how good a tool can be, just look at the tools that *toolsmiths* use. With "source control" - the software programmers use to collaboratively write software - we get a *very* different vision of how The Cloud could operate. Indeed, modern source control doesn't use The Cloud *at all*. Programmers' workflow doesn't break if they can't access the internet, and if the company that provides their source control servers goes away, it's simplicity itself to move onto another server provider.

This isn't The Cloud, it's just "the cloud" - that whiteboard glyph from the days of the old, good internet - freely interchangeable, eminently fungible, disposable and replaceable. For a tool like git, Github is just one possible synchronization point among many, all of which have a workflow whereby programmers' computers automatically make local copies of all relevant data and periodically lob it back up to one or more servers, resolving conflicting edits through a process that is also largely automated.

There's a name for this model: it's called "Local First" computing, which is computing that starts from the presumption that the user and their device is the most important element of the system. Networked servers are dumb pipes and dumb storage, a nice-to-have that fails gracefully when it's not available.

The data structures of source-code are among the most complicated formats we have; if we can do this for code, we can do it for spreadsheets, word-processing files, slide-decks, even edit-decision-lists for video and audio projects. If local-first computing can work for programmers writing code, it can work for the programs those programmers write.

Local-first computing is experiencing a renaissance. Writing for *Wired*, Gregory Barber traces the history of the movement, starting with the French computer scientist Marc Shapiro, who helped develop the theory of "Conflict-Free Replicated Data" - a way to synchronize data after multiple people edit it - two decades ago:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-cloud-is-a-prison-can-the-local-first-software-movement-set-us-free/

Shapiro and his co-author Nuno Preguiça envisioned CFRD as the building block of a new generation of P2P collaboration tools that weren't exactly serverless, but which also didn't rely on servers as the lynchpin of their operation. They published a technical paper that, while exiting, was largely drowned out by the release of GoogleDocs (based on technology built by a company that Google bought, not something Google made in-house).

Shapiro and Preguiça's work got fresh interest with the 2019 publication of "Local-First Software: You Own Your Data, in spite of the Cloud," a viral whitepaper-cum-manifesto from a quartet of computer scientists associated with Cambridge University and Ink and Switch, a self-described "industrial research lab":

https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/static/local-first.pdf

The paper describes how its authors - Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg and Mark McGranaghan - prototyped and tested a bunch of simple local-first collaboration tools built on CFRD algorithms, with the goal of "network optional...seamless collaboration." The results are impressive, if nascent. Conflicting edits were simpler to resolve than the authors anticipated, and users found URLs to be a good, intuitive way of sharing documents. The biggest hurdles are relatively minor, like managing large amounts of change-data associated with shared files.

Just as importantly, the paper makes the case for *why* you'd want to switch to local-first computing. The Cloud is not reliable. Companies like Evernote don't last forever - they can disappear in an eyeblink, and take your data with them:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/9/23789012/evernote-layoff-us-staff-bending-spoons-note-taking-app

Google isn't likely to disappear any time soon, but Google is a graduate of the Darth Vader MBA program ("I have altered the deal, pray I don't alter it any further") and notorious for shuttering its products, even beloved ones like Google Reader:

https://www.theverge.com/23778253/google-reader-death-2013-rss-social

And while the authors don't mention it, Google is also prone to simply kicking people off *all* its services, costing them their phone numbers, email addresses, photos, document archives and more:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/22/allopathic-risk/#snitches-get-stitches

There is enormous enthusiasm among developers for local-first application design, which is only natural. After all, *companies* that use The Cloud go to great lengths to make it just "the cloud," using containerization to simplify hopping from one cloud provider to another in a bid to stave off lock-in from their cloud providers and the enshittification that inevitably follows.

The nimbleness of containerization acts as a disciplining force on cloud providers when they deal with their business customers: disciplined by the threat of losing money, cloud companies are incentivized to treat those customers better. The companies we deal with as end-users know exactly how bad it gets when a tech company can impose high switching costs on you and then turn the screws until things are almost-but-not-quite so bad that you bolt for the doors. They devote fantastic effort to making sure that never happens to them - and that they can always do that to *you*.

Interoperability - the ability to leave one service for another - is technology's secret weapon, the thing that ensures that users can turn The Cloud into "the cloud," a humble whiteboard glyph that you can erase and redraw whenever it suits you. It's the greatest hedge we have against enshittification, so small wonder that Big Tech has spent decades using interop to clobber their competitors, and lobbying to make it illegal to use interop against *them*:

https://locusmag.com/2019/01/cory-doctorow-disruption-for-thee-but-not-for-me/

Getting interop back is a hard slog, but it's also our best shot at creating a new, good internet that lives up the promise of the old, good internet. In my next book, *The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation* (Verso Books, Sept 5), I set out a program fro disenshittifying the internet:

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

The book is up for pre-order on Kickstarter now, along with an independent, DRM-free audiobooks (DRM-free media is the content-layer equivalent of containerized services - you can move them into or out of any app you want):

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Meanwhile, Lina Khan, the FTC and the DoJ Antitrust Division are taking steps to halt the economic side of enshittification, publishing new merger guidelines that will ban the kind of anticompetitive merger that let Big Tech buy its way to glory:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/biden-administration-corporate-merger-antitrust-guidelines/674779/

The internet doesn't have to be enshittified, and it's not too late to disenshittify it. Indeed - the same forces that enshittified the internet - monopoly mergers, a privacy and labor free-for-all, prohibitions on user-side twiddling - have enshittified everything from cars to powered wheelchairs. Not only *should* we fight enshittification - *we must*.


_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🥀 Hey look at this

* Patient Zero https://prospect.org/health/2023-08-01-patient-zero-tom-scully/

* It’s Time to Rethink Digital Ownership https://www.wired.com/story/have-a-nice-future-podcast-16/

* Rewiper https://rewiperblades.com/ (h/t Rick Bychowski)

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🥀 This day in history

#20yrsago Charlie Stross on mini-PCs http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi/2003/Aug/3#ukuug-1

#10yrsago Iranian government unveils finger-amputating machine for punishing “thieves” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9831727/Iran-unveils-finger-amputating-machine-for-use-on-thieves.html

#10yrsago Colorado lawmakers’ license plates exempt them from speed cams & parking tix https://consumerist.com/2013/08/02/colorado-lawmakers-have-magical-license-plates-that-prevent-them-from-getting-tickets/

#10yrsago My workflow in the WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324354704578635792701857784">https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324354704578635792701857784

#5yrsago Audible puts the screws to indie authors https://web.archive.org/web/20180817070240/http://www.scottcarney.com/2018/08/acx-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

#5yrsago Googlers revolt against Google’s secret plan to offer censored search tools in China https://theintercept.com/2018/08/03/google-search-engine-china-censorship-backlash/

#5yrsago How the NYPD recriminalized marijuana after the state decriminalized it https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/nyregion/marijuana-police-nyc.html

#5yrsago How Jpay gouges prisoners’ families for “digital postage stamps” https://www.wired.com/story/jpay-securus-prison-email-charging-millions/

#5yrsago Listen: ZZTop’s “Legs” and U2’s “Streets Have No Name” are the same song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYQ7cMJhkQ

#5yrsago Fraudsters offers thousands to low-waged telco employees for help with SIM Swap scams https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ky5a5/criminals-recruit-telecom-employees-sim-swapping-port-out-scam

#5yrsago Border family separation isn’t “zero tolerance” – CBP looked for parents to charge so they could kidnap kids https://theintercept.com/2018/08/03/zero-tolerance-family-separations-trump-immigration-family-separation/

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🥀 Colophon

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

* Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, WAITING FOR EDITORIAL REVIEW

* The Bezzle, a Martin Hench noir thriller novel about the prison-tech industry. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, WAITING FOR EDITORIAL REVIEW

* Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. ON SUBMISSION

* Moral Hazard, a short story for MIT Tech Review's 12 Tomorrows. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

* Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. ON SUBMISSION

Latest podcast: The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (audiobook outtake) https://craphound.com/news/2023/08/01/the-internet-con-how-to-seize-the-means-of-computation-audiobook-outtake/

Upcoming appearances:

* Armadillocon (Austin), Aug 4-6
https://armadillocon.org/d45/

* Medium Day (online), Aug 12
https://medium.com/tag/medium-day

* Defcon (Las Vegas), Aug 10-13
https://defcon.org/

* San Diego Union Tribune Festival of Books, Aug 19
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

* Burning Man Center Camp, 1430h, Aug 29
https://playaevents.burningman.org/2023/playa_events/03/

* EFF Awards (San Francisco), Sept 14
https://www.eff.org/awards/effawards/2023

* An Evening with VE Schwab (Des Moines), Oct 2
https://www.thecabinidaho.org/all-events/ve-schwab

Recent appearances:

* Haunted Mansion Ghost Post Panel Live From Midsummer Scream
https://dizneycoasttocoast.libsyn.com/haunted-mansion-ghost-post-panel-live-from-midsummer-scream-disney-podcast-episode-1027

* how big tech makes the internet worse (What's Gonna Happen)
https://www.stitcher.com/show/what-s-gonna-happen/episode/how-big-tech-makes-the-internet-worse-with-cory-doctorow-305645071

* Let The Platforms Burn: Bringing Back the Good Fire of the Old Internet (IETF117)
https://youtu.be/nK7JoGhF338?t=737

Latest books:

* "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.

* "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59 (print edition: https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/9781736205907) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books:

* The Internet Con: A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech, Verso, September 2023

* The Lost Cause: a post-Green New Deal eco-topian novel about truth and reconciliation with white nationalist militias, Tor Books, November 2023

This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

How to get Pluralistic:

Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

Pluralistic.net

Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://pluralistic.net/plura-list

Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic

Medium (no ads, paywalled):

https://doctorow.medium.com/

(Latest Medium column: "Microincentives and Enshittification: How the Curse of Bigness wrecked Google Search" https://doctorow.medium.com/microincentives-and-enshittification-574290ea196f)

Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://twitter.com/doctorow

Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic

"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_0xBF3D9110957E5F4C.asc
Type: application/pgp-keys
Size: 4820 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP public key
URL: <http://mail.flarn.com/pipermail/plura-list/attachments/20230803/47ef932c/attachment.bin>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 840 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail.flarn.com/pipermail/plura-list/attachments/20230803/47ef932c/attachment.sig>