Chris Gioran 💔
[...] a massively decentralized Internet, consisting of a huge number of small communities, requires database management systems that are built from the ground up for the purpose.
The systems available today are built to support massive, centralized, owned datasets, at immense complexity and cost, with intentions that go against the principles of a free and open Internet.
Aral Balkan
@chrisg 💕
(And it’s interesting that one of the first things I found I had to build was the simple in-process database in Kitten, JSDB. We need simpler tools, designed for one person – not for corporations to farm people – across the whole stack.)
mike805
@chrisg I run plenty of mysql instances, including on a Raspberry Pi for development. If used on a small scale it just works and requires no management.
Android has SQLITE built in - that is what holds your text messages - and that just works too.
What do we need to fix specifically?
Chris Gioran 💔
@mike805
The problem i am identifying is not technical, but political. It's about what are the intentions behind the infrastructure we develop, and my position is that we need to encourage a new wave of free software built specifically against centralization.
So yeah, we have the tech today to build small sites. SQLite is an excellent example of that. What we need is a widespread, explicit movement against big tech.
Shout out to @aral and @laura who (AFAIK) spoke about this idea first.
Aral Balkan
@chrisg Couldn’t agree more :)
https://codeberg.org/small-tech/jsdb#javascript-database-jsdb
💕
Aral Balkan
@chrisg Exactly. The goal must be that someone would use what you make because it is functional, usable, and maybe even delightful. Not because of its ethics. If we don’t design for that, we’ve already lost.
To put it another way, our ethics must include making sure that the experiences people have when using what we make are good ones. It all comes down to respect: for human rights, effort, and experience.
See:
- https://ind.ie/ethical-design/
- https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology
Chris Gioran 💔
Absolutely. I am not under any illusion that people will jump on a standalone piece of software just because of the morals it supports.
But a free, decentralized, anti capitalist software movement requires a lot of effort and moving pieces. And if we don't put in the work, then it will definitely not happen.
So i want to try, even if the odds are massively against me. At least i am having fun while doing it 🙂
mike805
@chrisg @aral @laura I've written a few projects based on "I don't like the way things are done so I am going to write a way I like the politics of" and while they worked technically, I couldn't get people to use them. Lesson learned. Now working on a project that will be just useful.
Aral Balkan
@railmeat I could have. But the ergonomics of a native, in-memory, append-only transition log fit my use case better and mean I can simplify the authoring and deployment of Small Web places.
I’m trying to get having your own place on the Small Web down to a 30 second process that requires zero technical knowledge to setup/maintain so every component that’s fully under my control and optimised for my needs helps. Complexity happens; simplicity you have to strive for :)
railmeat
@aral
Why couldn’t you use SQLite? It seems to be a simple, free, reliable database.
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