Many, many moons ago (2010-ish) https://unhosted.org was created and it was far ahead of its time. It correctly predicted the centralisation of data and compute (hyperscalers), how it would transfer power to the few. Thus it offered a very different human-centred philosophy. One where you own and control not just the data, but you also decide which compute resources are allowed to work with it. I think it’s about time to take a fresh look at the concept.
@jwildeboer I also read the unhosted page that you linked back in 2010.
I really liked the idea, but after thinking about it for a while and doing some research about how the relevant protocols work, I'm convinced that it's just not worth it.
It would work if the apps and the protocols were designed for it but for example, if you want to do email or publishing, It starts to go off the rails fast.
I think we already have the software to solve this problem, simple things which already work with the rest of the world. They're compatible, using the same protocols.
I'm focused on:
* the usability of the software, both for Admins and users
* the economic/social organization around the operation of the software
* seizing the right moments (unrest) to pull entire groups of people out of platforms at once. Where they wouldn't normally be able to leave because all of thier friends are there
@forestjohnson As I said. It was ahead of its time. But it is worth revisiting with what we have learned in the 15 years since.
@jwildeboer what did we learn?
As far as I know, people still aren't likely to fully ditch email, the https/web stack is still the only game in town, IPv6 is still always 10 years away, etc... I don't think any of the fundamentals have changed since then.
@forestjohnson Here are some fundamental changes: our devices (smartphones, laptops) have far more compute power and storage than 15 years ago. The interconnect speed has exploded from 2/3G and EGPRS to LTE and beyond.
@jwildeboer I was arguing that
because being able to directly accept a TCP connection is still step one for a lot of use cases,
All the work that went into making the network and devices faster doesn't help all that much; what good is a fast network if no one can connect to each other in the first place?
We can make great "local first" apps, but since everyone is still in "NAT jail", we still need servers. Having a server helps a ton, even if you're trying to build an app that's offline-only most of the time.
For apps that don't need to be able to accept connections; yes the unhosted idea works great. But I care about federation, publishing, etc, I think they are really important and worth designing for.
