Protocols usually aren’t strongly branded.
OK. Let’s start there. Protocols aren’t branded.
I can’t imagine Tim Berners-Lee thinking “I must figure out how to promote http”. Jolly difficult wot! Its what people do with a protocol that makes it useful, or (usually), not. World Wide Web, like Atmosphere, is just a throwaway that appeals to everyone. Its soo American to want to promote a product before its settled. (Ask Microsoft)
So.. We’re starting to get a few flavours of what In http-speak we call Web Sites (domain names). Bluesky (as the first), then Black, Euro, etc. They’re the brands people associate with. If I (as a pommy) see one, where bluesky is pretty inspiring, but I like the euro version of how the protocol is being used (mainly the priorities they SEEM to have), I’m going to vote with my feet/PDS.
Let’s bring this down. The idea is; I have a PDS with an org who owns my server which represents my values. The governance of that org concerns me. Another Elon or Trump I don’t need. Whether that org is a private, or or an public one concerns me. Americans, it seems, don’t seem to trust their governments. Europeans, less so. They’re happy with a government issued wallet.
Technically, the real paradigm shift = splitting (hiding) my account/personal details from my online social discussions = comes down to the formal layers of my identity which give me the responsibilities and authority = the sovereignty = of a citizen. While retaining my privacy of course.
In Europe, governments are starting to issue public wallets, where 24 country’s citizens can validate, at the highest level of security, they have a pulse. I’d like my Atmosphere PDS inside one. Americans have Google or Apple.
Excuse the rave, but this need - to put a user’s/citizen’s ID/Account - before whatever protocol is being used, is now starting to become serious.
Talk- social media- is cheap. Most people want to be part of a Nation’s communities. They want to meet people like themselves and have a say in the things they need and want to do. AND - here’s the important bit - they want to consider that they, together, can actually achieve some goal. Democracy?
Privately-owned media won’ t help here. Content (their owners know) is there to separate the ads (and spin a story). And Americans don’t look at public media like 24 language Europeans do.) Mind you the old European public broadcasters aren’t much better.
