[ih] Preparing for the splinternet

[Dan York]

Jack,

> On Mar 13, 2022, at 3:55 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> Internet technologies such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat) provided an open mechanism for people to carry on public discussions.  But that didn't prevent the emergence of myriad social media mechanisms that collectively dominate today as competing silos.   The battle continues, and IRC still exists as a minor contestant, but it's not likely to win.   Similarly, NNTP provided a mechanism for disseminating news across the Internet; there's lots of news today on the 'net, but I don't think it travels using NNTP.
> 
> An open nature is apparently insufficient.   A strong "forcing function" is also insufficient, except in its own silo where its force is effective.

I think a critical element with both IRC and NNTP (of which I was a strong user of both) and similar other technologies based on open standards was, and still is…  *user experience* (UX).

I remember very well in the mid-2000s when many of us were working on VoIP systems based on the Session Initiation Protocol. We were working hard to get SIP to a place where it could replace H.323 and other various proprietary protocols. We were making progress on many different fronts, but there was a lot of complexity involved with making SIP work in so many different network configurations. 

Then along came Skype with its extremely simple UX. You just installed the software and… ta da… you were making audio calls to people. And it was SO SIMPLE that “anyone” could install Skype on their computer and have it “just work”. 

We saw this happen with messaging with IRC and also Jabber/XMPP. “Regular” users got used to the increasingly sophisticated UX of proprietary messaging apps like WhatsApp, Apple’s iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and many others. 

Those consumer experiences drove enterprise/organization expectations. And IRC clients and Jabber clients just couldn’t keep up.

Along came Slack with its slick UX and… poof… people started leaving IRC and XMPP networks for the simplicity and “just works” UX of Slack. 🙁. (And now other similar proprietary messaging systems.)

In both the case of Skype and Slack, they are centralized systems/services using proprietary protocols.

Those centralized services also made it extremely easy to discover other people - and both started to have large directories of users. (A separate but related issue I wrote about a while ago - and is still a key issue around acceptance of these systems - some of the players have just changed since I wrote this in 2016: https://circleid.com/posts/20160515_directory_dilemma_why_facebook_google_skype_may_win_mobile_app_war )

I think NNTP had similar issues with the UX of news readers… but I also think there were larger issues there with companies seeking to use news as a means to keep people inside their new walled gardens.. and also to provide moderated experiences. (But that could be a whole other email thread.)

My 2 cents,
Dan