Gregory's ServerStill they can't organize enough to distribute open devices to the public.
Which isn't an argument FOR the market, just AGAINST lazyness and staying in your box.
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7 comments
🤔 hmm Maby "entering the market" alredy is the problem here. If it would be possible to attract more (especially poor people that have no "market-value") to maker-spaces, repair-shops, etc. and they can walk out with non-commercial devices that operate in an open-source environment (without ads and scams and all) .. that would be really something (dangerous).  @berlinfokus I think there's an inherent tension here though: a non-profit, user-oriented phone market that internalises externalities (such as labour rights, environmental cost, etc.) wouldn't look much like the setup we have today. Phones would be designed for longevity and repair. Their manufacture would not be lucrative and would happen at a lower frequency. It's just a different definition of 'success' to that which existing manufacturers, driven by the profit motive, operate upon. Yea it's difficult, no question. I just remember the 1990s and early 2000s (in Berlin) when you had a lot of underground-spaces where very "normal" people went to seek help repairing their broken radio .. and got the help there from the very nerds who not only did that, but constructed their own (very crazy sometimes) devices, started coding and made experimental music. These connections did a lot good. And they are all broken now. (Also money destroyed all the physical spaces.)  the same also happened in UK, Netherlands, France (I was part of this scene in late 90s) - we didn't even call them "hackspaces" or "makerspaces" as such, they grew out of the squats/raves and finding a lot of abandoned hardware in buildings that were used for parties, a lot of which we got working again - my then hometown was Reading in SE England, which had a lot of tech companies but also much "boom and bust" that led to many going bankrupt Write your stories down & post them somewhere. Next gen definitely needs some input that doesn't come from crooked #billionaires and their Igors. (Also, I should do the same I guess. 😬)  @jsbarretto @berlinfokus I’m just thinking that the manufacture of phones and computer parts frequently _isnt_ lucrative. I think much of the actual “industry” going on runs wafer thin margins. It’s the businesses having the devices built that makes the profits and steers them towards obsolescence . |
@berlinfokus I think that's a fair criticism, although as mentioned: a lot of this is because the market is almost designed to make it difficult for competitors to enter. Regardless, I think we'll see a lot of non-profits (or non-profit-adjacent, with bylaws/goals that diverge significantly from your typical vendor, like Fairphone) entering the market.