Podcast Episode: Wordle And The Web We Need

We can imagine certainly the combination of technology and regulation mandating some degree of interoperability on such things. Anil Dash is CEO of Glitch, the friendly developer community where coders collaborate to create and share millions of web apps, and a longtime entrepreneur and writer focused upon how technology can transform society, media, the arts, government, and culture. Big, thanks to Anil for joining us today. I kind of disagreed with the Anil there. It's funny because the early days of web 2.0 the hype was data is the new intel inside and there was this sort of trust based idea, you'd be able to export your data or something. This is not a new idea, And what's been most amazing for me to see in these last two weeks is the majority of remixes we've seen on Glitch have been from K-pop fans. Do you think about embodying these values when you are designing stuff like Glitch or do you see these as separate worlds?

I think it's actually just illustrating, getting people to see the consequences of what they do and highlighting that they have the power to change that. Could we have an example? First we'll help the people that have the fastest phones, the fastest connections, the most wealth, the most security, the most stability and then everybody else will benefit later. This is not the first time anybody's thought about these problems and what could we learn about what did and didn't work in the past? And that idea of caring about that level of selling out at a time when every rapper has their own perfume and clothing line and whatever is just anachronistic. We just need to work out a way of making all of those things work for them. We have all these things and it could be the most hostile place in the world. We did some high profile things like flying a banner over Apple when they were having a big meeting and things like that. How can people regain or have that control over the technology that seems to dominate their lives?

It was like everybody's going to own their own work and they're going to have this control. And at an architectural level, it is radical because it is simple and it is a throwback to an internet that many people have forgotten about. And people that work in tech that don't want to be ashamed. In terms of strategy and tactics, I do think that this emerging possibility that tech workers can influence positive change at tech companies. Because I think that's something we struggle with in tech a lot. That's very anachronistic. I'm aware that time has passed for that moment for a lot of people. And I was like, fan communities teach each other a lot. When the phrase user generated content came out, it was such an absurd framing that I think those of us who were users who were generating content were like, this sounds like a parody. And now I talk to young people who introduce themselves to me as content creators. And he's not saying I'm a content creator for HBO. And I think about movements like that are so galvanizing because of their clarity, you'll know when you win. And also you can't have an approach to technology unless you know what you are ultimately aiming for.

We can't evaluate whether it meets our ethical, moral, social, cultural standards, unless we know what our standards are. I think the workers are a really great place to go. I think that if that question has been asked and answered in a good way, that's part of our better world. I think of the Delete Uber hashtag trending on Twitter. And so I keep calling it the Wordle wide web, like that version of the internet we were told is dead and can't succeed. And so they pick their favorite band and they take their songs and they make a Heardle remix just for the group that they like or just for the genre that they like. The key takeaway here is pop culture tied directly to broad individual creation of independent websites that all run on their own addresses created by individual people with no surveillance, no tracking, no connection to any of the big silos, complete open source, the ability to take it and actually run it somewhere else. And these marches and they were walking them through what to do with their phones and what to install and how to run their browser.