[P2P-F] Fwd: [Networked-Labour] The rise of digital empires

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Haugen <bob.haugen at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 10:31 PM
Subject: [Networked-Labour] The rise of digital empires
To: networked-labour_igopnet at lists.igopnet.cc


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.

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