Weekly Links & Thoughts #83

Here is this week’s edition of meshedsociety.com weekly, loaded with thoughtful opinion pieces, interesting analyses and significant yet under-reported information bits from the digital and technology world. Published and annotated every Thursday (CET), just in time so you have something good to read over the weekend.

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Length indicator: 1 = short, 2 = medium, 3 = long

• The Future as a Way of Life (3)
  
  Very intelligent analysis of one of our time’s major divides between people: There are those who actively and passionately shape the future (their own and/or others’) and there are those who fear the future and think they are powerless. As the author (imo accurately) points out, it is essential that more people switch from the fear into shaping camp.
• App Coins and the dawn of the Decentralized Business Model (2)
  
  Exciting text explaining how crypto currencies and the Blockchain can enable decentralized business models and the rise of new protocols incentivized by collective ownership. This could beat the giant, centralized platforms that accumulate large amounts of value/wealth in the hands of a few.
• More Encryption Means Less Privacy (1)
  
  The more tech companies enable end-to-end encryption for their services, the bigger are governments’ incentives to seek ways to break or entirely prohibit encryption/block encrypted services. Sounds like quite a dilemma, because what should be done instead?
• How the Internet, the Sharing Economy, and Reputational Feedback Mechanisms Solve the “Lemons Problem” (2)
  
  Something to ponder: In the age of online reviews and various other reputational feedback mechanisms, traditional government regulation aimed at countering the information deficiency problem might no longer be needed.
• The lost infrastructure of social media (3)
  
  A walk down the memory lane and a reminder of how most of today’s common elements of centralized, commercial social networks and publishing sites have been invented by the early blogging systems.
• This man is cycling around the UK in virtual reality using Google Street View (1)
  
  Welcome to the future.
• Is this my interface or yours? (2)
  
  Thoughtful take on software’s use of possessive pronouns such as “my”, “your” or “our/we” and the subtle difference the choice makes.
• Fresh Take on “Influence” in the Tech Industry (1)
  
  From February 2016: An overview about the most influential US tech journalists.
• An Inside Look At The Exploding World Of China’s VR Cafes (2)
  
  A though from me: Maybe VR cafés will slowly turn into the next type of cinema?
• Here’s Why TripAdvisor Is Becoming the Facebook of Online Travel (1)
  
  Interesting description, possibly not too far off. I’m checking TripAdvisor probably several times a week (but admittedly, my mind is occupied with travel booking & research a bit too much sometimes).
• Amazon Has Big Plans for Alexa: Running the ‘Star Trek’ Home (2)
  
  Yes, or as I put it a few months ago, to create “Samantha” from the movie “Her”.
• Why Won’t Facebook Release Me From Overnight Oats Hell? (2)
  
  This article could have been shorter, but it points to a real issue: Facebook’s news feed keeps showing the same posts over and over again at the top, over days, due to friend activity on it. I have noticed the same thing lately and it is quite annoying.
• I Just Drove Eight Hours on Tesla Autopilot and Lived to Tell the Tale (2)
  
  An eye-opening read. It makes you realize how unbelievably bold Tesla actually is to put itself into the role of the car company that takes all the risks associated with providing people with advanced autopilot features (which yet fall a bit short off enabling fully self-driving cars). Big risk, big opportunity, of course. But yeah, really big risk.
• Is it drunk driving or drunk riding if you party on AutoPilot? (1)
  
  The alcohol industry seriously must love self-driving cars. When will the world’s leading breweries such as Anheuser-Busch InBev or Heineken start investing in car companies that push this technology?
• Listen to What’s Being Whispered, not What’s Being Said (2)
  
  An amazing, thought-provoking read about the specific message that certain cities communicate to their people. Inspired by this great essay of Paul Graham from 2008 about “Cities and Ambition”.
• Once Taunted by Steve Jobs, Companies Are Now Big Customers of Apple (2)
  
  Apple really pulled it off and became some kind of enterprise IT company. The challenge will be to keep pleasing both individual customers and large companies without too many compromises.
• In Europe, U.S. Cloud Firms ‘Out Innovated’ Competitors in Wake of NSA Leak (1)
  
  The so called “Snowden effect” which predicted that European companies’ would choose local cloud competitors over US protagonists to avoid the NSA’s surveillance (either for real or at least as a placebo effort) did not happen.

Recently on meshedsociety.com

• Stories is to Instagram what Streaming was to Netflix
  
  Is Instagram’s new Stories feature just a little gimmick for Instagram fans to play with? I don’t think so. I’d argue that it’s the future of Instagram. The same way as Streaming was the future for Netflix when Netflix still was a DVD-by-mail company.

Video of the week

• William Talking Blockchains At Google
  
  Sometimes, hearing someone speak about a complex technology is so much more comprehensible than reading about it. That’s how I felt when watching this talk. Well and vididly explained what the Blockchain is and what it can be used for.

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