Cruise ships and rule sets
Doc Searls, noting the Facebook flap, says that having social networks hosted by silos is a problem. He's calling for a “real commons” online.
But, wait. Doc's thinking that we should have public spaces online, that you should know when you're there, and that you should act differently when you are. Borders are interesting — borders make for differences, which make things alive. Without a difference between an inside and an outside, you've got equilibrium.
So to have a public space online, we'd need some borders between that and the private space. I can imagine an open source metaverse, where the people from WoW can come by if they want to and get on a soapbox. Worlds collide!
I'm not convinced that a “silo” is a problem to the extent that “silo” means “borders.” Borders are very useful. There may even be rules associated with the envelope of a public online space (no sleeping there overnight?).
All in all, it's a good time to be dreaming about the future of the graphical, networked screen. We've been stuck with text for far too long.
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