Robin Berjontweets archive

January 2024

41 tweets

Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @briankardell and @luke_warlow, @RickByers, @yoavweiss, @brianskold

Apathy is certainly a problem but I don't think it's because people aren't getting paid (even though paying people is of course good). In my experience the two primary drivers of apathy are how hard it is to get started and the fact that developers have no real power.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
Barriers to entry come in multiple shapes. Some things are legitimately hard, no one uses email, the process can be counterintuitive, it's intimidating, sometimes toxic, and there's no broad education or outreach about how to do it. Some of this is fixable.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
The second is harder: people don't see the point because they're not empowered. I know that browser devs try to be open to input (not everyone tries very hard, but still) but at the end of the day devs just aren't in command and the implementation decisions are opaque.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
People don't want to beg for features, they don't want to be (selectively) listened to, they don't want a call centre: they want to be empowered to get shit done. There are ways to fix that too, but I doubt the level of democratic commitment will be appealing to major browsers.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
To give an example, I spent much of 2020 making calls to dozens of publisher or dev teams that I know have real web issues but never show up. I got the same answer *everywhere* (not some, all): Why would I work to participate when $BigCompany will just do what they want anyway?
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Thread of 5 tweets

Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @RickByers and @luke_warlow, @briankardell, @yoavweiss, @brianskold

Oh, I forgot this yesterday. There's not really such a thing as a tragedy of the commons: aeon.co/essays/the-tra… People will show up to organise and tend to their infrastructure, but they need to be empowered and to believe that their contributions are meaningful.
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Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @briankardell and @RickByers, @luke_warlow, @yoavweiss, @brianskold

Well yeah, it's all in how that institution is structured: the Onceler can appropriate everything but the Lorax can only "speak for the trees." Someone can speak for the devs, but unless they can act nothing is going to get better, it's not!
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @Caffar3Cristina

It's almost like productive and extractive are not the same thing and might not serve society the same way.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @latams

It looks like only verified users can DM you. Is the best way to reach you to go find your email on the site?
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @latams

Thank you! I'll confer with my coconspirator and reach out. Yeah — this platform is a mess. I have Bluesky invites if you or anyone at Noema is interested. (I promise it's not a bribe :)
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @salome_viljoen_

I was at RMIT all of last week! Such a shame, I wish I'd been there a month earlier.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @mraginsky and @bayesianboy, @virgil_30

I feel attacked.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @OpenINF and @DerekNonGeneric, @shellscape

Context matters 😁 This wasn't originally written as a manifesto at all - I framed that tweet (months after I posted the article) that way because everyone was talking about the a16z manifesto nonsense. In general, I have deep manifesto fatigue and wouldn't write one.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @shellscape

Yeah, I mean, I would *definitely* write manifestos in 1998!
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @LMSacasas

Unrelated, but folks were *just* talking about the Borg Complex over on Bluesky. Any chance I could entice you over there with an invite? (Resistance is futile 😉)

Thread of 2 tweets

Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @libshipwreck and @LMSacasas

*susurating siren voice* Maybe jussst make an account, ssssssee how you like it...
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @LMSacasas

Will DM!
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @RickByers and @briankardell, @yoavweiss, @brianskold

It's more complicated/subtle than that. If you're talking about irrigation in a village then yeah, you need to exclude or punish freeriders. For large-scale infrastructure commons, especially digital ones that have near zero marginal cost, that's a lot less important.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
If you think about an open access road for instance, it doesn't matter that a lot of people who use it don't pay (maybe they don't meet a threshold for income tax, maybe they're tourists). The spillover benefits, including from nonpaying users, are worth it anyway.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
For web infrastructure, we don't suffer from some developers not showing up to write standards. They're freeriding but we all benefit from the spillover benefits of them using the same infra. (It would also be tricky to run a WG with everyone.)
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
The shortcomings we have aren't from the lack of punishment as much as the lack of voice and ownership. At the end of the day, there is limited value in tending someone else's walled garden. (Whether you agree with the characterisation doesn't matter if people believe it anyway)

Thread of 4 tweets

Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @RickByers and @yoavweiss, @briankardell, @brianskold

Ah, sorry, I didn't catch the context change! The commons bit of the thread was about devs not participating being a tragedy of the commons and I was still on that. Sorry, I'm going to braindump at you; first open source, then web infrastructure 😬😉
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
Open source in general is a bit complicated because most projects would not be viable if they couldn't use their dependencies for free, but they're also not sustainable because they themselves are not getting paid. And then $BIG_CLOUD_COMPANY makes a ton of money from your thing.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
There are several ongoing projects to solve that: • Some folks are working on licenses that give rights to contributors (in money or work) and not others. It's interesting (creates a more robust commons) but I don't understand how you scale that to many dependencies.

Read the whole thread: 16 tweets →

Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @Chronotope and @montezumachavez

Correct. Got you covered! berjon.com/gpc-child-priv…
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Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
Not having key societal functions operated by undemocratic corporations is indeed a key goal of antitrust policy. Without this it risks being nothing but sterile debates between shades of antiquated neoliberalism.
Quoting a tweet by @BruxConf2024 ↗
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Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @MarietjeSchaake

A few thoughts: bookshop.org/p/books/limita… bsky.app/profile/robin.… bsky.app/profile/robin.… bsky.app/profile/robin.…