---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bob Haugen <[email protected]> Date: Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 10:31 PM Subject: [Networked-Labour] The rise of digital empires To: [email protected] http://tech.newstatesman.com/guest-opinion/digital-empires <excerpts> "The internet today is increasingly shaped by a small collection of digital giants: Amazon. Apple. Facebook. Google. Even if these companies’ intentions are good, the amount of control they exert conflicts with the internet’s best nature." "Last year, Mozilla carried out research in emerging markets to unpack new users’ relationships with the internet. We encountered a startling mindset in East Africa – for many users, the internet was indistinguishable from Facebook. The internet didn’t exist outside of this singular social network." "...today’s app economy, dictated by a tiny number of players like the App Store and Google Play, creates a divide between the creators and consumers – or, the winners and the losers. "Recent research by UK firm Caribou Digital shows that most developers outside the US find it almost impossible to reach a global audience – the app stores are hard for new entrants in places like Kenya or Brazil to break into. Furthermore, almost all countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are ‘importers’ in the app economy." </excerpts> You know all of that. But where will it go from there? I continue to think that one or more of those empires will merge with the global financial and intelligence networks (unless that has already happened, as in the Onion "joke" that the "CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs") and become the world government. In that development, Trump is a temporary diversion: a holding action by an outmatched national capitalist. We'll see. _______________________________________________ Networked-labour_igopnet mailing list [email protected] http://grups.pangea.org/mailman/listinfo/networked-labour_igopnet -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/