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By GLIAnet Co-creator Richard S. Whitt
How to ensure human autonomy over our computational “screens, scenes, and unseens.”
June 3, 2019
As a “noble warrior hero” from the Kree homeworld of Hala, Carol has just discovered that much of what she assumes to be true about herself is a lie.
June 18, 2019
Action Plans for Creating Personal AIs
In the complex world of artificial intelligence, one lesson for we humans is becoming increasingly clear: "Don't be the pinball. Be the machine."
July 1, 2019
GLIAnet's Richard Whitt Interviewed by the Pacific Telecommunications Council
An interview between GLIAnet’s Richard Whitt and Joe Weinman of the Pacific Telecommunications Council.
May 31, 2019
GLIAnet-Related “Hiding in the Open”
Article Featured in Georgetown Law Technology Review
The Georgetown Law Technology Review recently published my article on the concept of openness in modern communications and information systems. This new piece should be of particular interest to those seeking a scholarly treatment of some of the foundational elements in my GLIAnet Project.
February 20, 2019
Why should we care? The human element
There was a User, and there was the Internet.
The Internet was open -- decentralized, peer-to-peer, with intelligence residing at either end. Unlike the virtual “walled gardens” that preceded it, the Net provided people with choices, and innovations, and opportunities. Indeed, some of its champions promised to eliminate unneeded, rent-seeking middlemen, calling it “disintermediation.” Instead, power would shift from network core to the edges of the Net -- and the ordinary user.
October 31, 2018
As discussed last time, the grudging imprimatur granted to Ads+Data World transforms humans into users and consumers, in all aspects of our personal, and social, and economic, and political lives.
That same platform-centric model now is being imported, without much forethought, into the brave new world of ubiquitous, always-on devices and computing and data flows.
Online technologies of potential control continue to emerge.
November 12, 2018
GLIAnet: A viable solution to consider
My last two blog installments discussed one diagnosis on the “Why” of our current quandary on the open Web: a growing trust and accountability deficit in online technologies, and in particular the Platforms companies. It seems, in fact, the Platforms and many others have benefited considerably from the Net’s openness, even as (other) intermediaries have faded away, or been rendered obsolete.
And yet, these same Platform companies seem not to be quite returning the favor. Per Nassim Nicholas Taleb, by privatizing their gains and offloading their externalities, they lack sufficient “skin in the game.” What, though, if we were able to go back, in a sense, to 1995, to the implicit social contract many of us believe we signed up to then? What if we could inject some authentic trust and accountability back into a more decentralized, edge-based system? What if it were OK to be “open” with the Internet again?
November 20, 2018
Avatars, cloudlets, identity layers, dApps -- and other potential elements of a GLIAnet ecosystem
Last time, I discussed the importance of truly trustworthy and accountable entities -- acting legally and ethically as “countermediaries” -- to help us manage and promote our digital lives. When we are able to select these entities, in a voluntary and consensual manner, to fully represent our personal interests, we can think of them as becoming our Digital TrustMediaries.
There are other potential components as well of a trustworthy and open GLIAnet ecosystem that actually serves the empowered human being. Here are a few.
November 27, 2018
Exploring the GLIAnet ecosystem
Over the last four weeks, I have been discussing what I see as the root cause for many challenges on the open Web today -- namely, a pervasive and growing trust and accountability deficit in online tech platforms. I also have posited a particular way of bridging that deficit: building a new Web ecosystem that I call GLIAnet. Today, I want to explore some of the ramifications of such an endeavor in a bit more depth.
December 3, 2018
Making GLIAnet happen: Layers10
Q. So, how can we make this GLIAnet concept happen?
A. Layers10
To paraphrase an American politician, it will take an ecosystem. (Or, to be precise, ten internetworked layers of an emergent GLIAnet ecosystem.)
December 11, 2018