This is an interesting concept that Blocktrades mentioned as a central premise in his thinking about what we are doing with Hive. For all that Hive offers, what about the idea of being able to with others freely?
It is something that is lost upon our society. There was a time when we could talk with whomever we wanted. Granted, we are mostly dealing with face-to-face communications so the pool of people was rather limited.
Of course, we could then look at old-school letter writing. It was possible to sit down, pen a letter, and send it to anyone desired. While the postal system was involved, they did not monitor what was sent in letters. Certainly, there are some things that cannot be mailed but that mostly applies to items.
Content was not scanned nor interrupted.
The same is not true today. We live in a world where the exact opposite is the case. If we want to communicate, it is with permission.
Communication Intermediaries
We now have intermediaries.
This is something we experience throughout our live with regards to financial matters. Paying with cash was akin to open communication yet that died as the use of physical currency diminished. When entering the electronic, then digital, realm, everything was suddenly monitored.
The same thing happened when communication.
When snail mail turned into email, Google and companies like that could engage in surveillance. As we turned to other communication mediums, technology platforms suddenly had a lot more control.
Of course, we gave it over willingly.
Whenever we log in, we are only doing so with their permission. Do you want to host a call on Discord or Zoom? What is required to initiate the call? Permission.
While some might make the case with the old telephone system, as long as the bill was paid, the call was made. Under extreme cases, a government entity might get a wire tap authorized. How ironic that sound?
Today, all calls that take place through the technology platforms are recorded.
There is always an intermediary providing permission. We cannot post an article without authorization. Any type of communication between parties only comes with approval.
Hive seeks to change this.
Democratizing Communication
This is a concept that is not often discussed. In fact, it is rarely thought about in these terms. However, if we are going to have freedom, the ability to communicate with those we want without receiving permission from others is essential.
Here we see how it is up to us to democratize communication. This means returning to a time when people were able to engage with anyone else by simply talking with each other.
Naturally, we have to put a 21st century spin on it and make it applicable in the digital world.
That mean removing intermediaries from the equation. This is no different than what we are looking to accomplish within the financial sector.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi), when you think about it, is nothing more than the ability to conduct financial transactions without the permission of another. This is the removal of the layers of intermediaries that control the present financial system.
Text Communication
Hive, at present, offers the ability to interact via text.
When engaging with the blockchain, there is one requirement: the the resource credits necessary to interact.
That is it.
As long as that is met, there are a number of applications which enable one to post whatever is desired. There is no permission granted from any individual or company. This is why true account ownership is crucial. If an account can be closed down, there is an intermediary somewhere.
Hive has returned us to the days when writing a letter and posting it to anyone with an address was possible. Of course, this is a bit different since it is not direct to a single individual. Instead, we can see it to potentially 5.25 billion people all over the world.
Expanding This Concept
We are seeing this idea expanded.
SpkNetwork is working on decentralized video and image storage. This is important because memes have become a 21st century communication tool. Millions are produced daily, all conveying ideas.
Again, with a decentralized system where individuals are hosting the content, this removes the traditional intermediaries who provide video and image storage. Here is where entities such as AWS operate.
By expanding the mediums included in this effort, we are providing more avenues for freedom of interaction. This is at the heart of communication.
We are looking to construct a broad system where communication without intermediaries is, once again, possible. This includes all forms of interaction, with people basically operating in a direct manner. Platforms that monitor and regulate what is taking place is not freedom.
As we can see, tyranny is often the result. People are continually having their digital lives slaughtered simply because some company decides it wants to.
Sadly, we do not realize how undemocratic our communication systems became. Silicon Valley, along with its association with governments, have hijacked all chance of open engagement. It inserted itself right in the middle of all conversations, requiring permission every step of the way.
Hive is here to change that. Some of the projects presently being worked upon remove these elements from the system.
Just like with money, we are moving creating the same benefits people had a half century ago yet with a digital twist on it.
Once again, we see how this is deeper than people think.
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Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha
This is part of what brought me to Hive. For the past several years I did volunteer political work, but I was always cognizant of how my ability to use any platform could be removed at any moment for any arbitrary reason, worse my communications could be throttled. Many social media platforms offer the illusion of free speech, but their net effect seems to be to condition users to color within well delineated lines. Tangentially I often wonder how AI will change our communication and consumption - will it enhance us - or will we adjust our own behaviors and patterns to it.
The Hive ecosystem is a bit overwhelming at first - my first day of use I rapidly burned through my posting power - not completely understanding the concept of resource credits - @revise-sociology gifted/delegated some power to me so I could continue to engage.
The mechanics of the Hive Apps though do seem to foster and encourage more thoughtful and careful posting - their is less filler and more substance. I'm still working up a mental model of the edges of the interfaces to Hive - ecency, 3speak, Leofinance, and PeakD for instance. I'm not completely certain yet where my best niche or best fit is.
One of the reasons I've been exploring decentralized options - I am a bit of a Storyteller - I perform stories online usually with a live artist - Conan, Sherlock Holmes, Lord of the Rings, Redwall, Narnia and so forth. YouTube primarily exists to create and monetize very perishable content - I enjoy and find more fulfillment in creating slower content that has more evergreen qualities.
I'll leave off here so as not to get to far off into the weeds - but I enjoyed your observations.
I've always loved communicating with people but that seemed to have dropped due to the fact that there were some limit to how much I could communicate with whoever and whenever I want. And that's one major reason why I just loved hive without needing anyone to explain too much for me.
I came and I experienced it for myself and saw that this is where I need to be and nowhere else. All the devs and witnesses are doing great in the aspect of making every experience here worthwhile and I admire them for that.
Have you tried OpenHive.Chat?
It's a Rocket.Chat based, community driven, off chain communication platform with on-chain authentication, via Hive of course.
Part of it is also a Meet.OpenHive.Chat - a voice/video communication platform (also a community hosted, open source jitsi instance).
It's not yet heavily integrated because we often use it ad-hoc, but once the usage is higher we will restrict it to Hive users only (with a potential to invite non-Hive guests) and in future it's possible to use RC to pay for bandwidth.
We are using it for quite some time for our public CoreDev meetings.
Decentralizing communication is very important and Hive is already playing a big role. Censorship hurts badly. And what the hosts do with our data behind our back is another big topic for next time.
If we can achieve that full decentralization in communication such as what the SpkNetwork is working on, then we could be closer to complete freedom of expression and ownership of thought.
Well said, brother.
Very interesting and thoughtful post! Democratising communication and decentralising it is a bold task. Blockchains have been quite good at this, but there is still more room to work on a positive road, including here on HIVE. I am hopeful that we are on the good path, especially given the fact that communication is digital here and what is digitalised is more user-friendly (not always, but definitely better than other forms of communication - and quite quicker at the same time). Thank you very much for writing and sharing this post! All the best and keep up the good work here on HIVE/LeoFinance. Plenty of success as well!
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I trust that Hive always achieve their intended target, so on the issue raise in this post, I am very certain that it will be look into if not already been work on.
Spknetwork working on decentralized video and image: wow that's a big one, Boss! We can't wait to have it on the table. Also, we still need technical improvement and perfection with the leofinance alpha microblogging. Threading isn't responding fast and easy. 😡It can be frustrating atimes.
I decided to make my response to this post via a thread:
https://leofinance.io/threads/view/uyobong/re-leothreads-9scd61hb
https://leofinance.io/threads/uyobong/re-uyobong-2uw83twin
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people ( uyobong ) sharing the post on LeoThreads,LikeTu,dBuzz.