The Extended Internet Universe

link:: https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/p/the-extended-internet-universe tags:: #article, #dark forest, #cozy web, #Ribbonfarm author:: Venkatesh Rao published:: May 24th, 2019

• For several years now, I’ve been watching the creeping, unheralded growth of what I call the cozyweb, and for which others have lots of creative names
  • We need a good name for this. Darkweb is drug dealers. Underground sounds narrower and more politically subversive than this is. This is mostly just a private web, a sort of domestic-backyards intranet.
  • Cut-and-paste web? Cozyweb? Backyard web? Friendly neighborhood intranet?
• Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler called it the Dark Forest in a recent post. The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
• Unlike the main public internet, which runs on the (human) protocol of “users” clicking on links on public pages/apps maintained by “publishers”, the cozyweb works on the (human) protocol of everybody cutting-and-pasting bits of text, images, URLs, and screenshots across live streams. Much of this content is poorly addressable, poorly searchable, and very vulnerable to bitrot. id:: 639f53fa-3743-4c7a-90fc-b09f9cca0d53
• It lives in a high-gatekeeping slum-like space comprising slacks, messaging apps, private groups, storage services like dropbox, and of course, email. id:: 63b4461a-5c55-4415-a32e-d3b2cc65979c