Gregory's ServerI'm looking for historical examples where a closed, monopolistic network (like, say, Twitter), was supplanted by an open one (say, the Fediverse) and what turmoil ensued.
AOL and the internet is the obvious one, but is there anything else?
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@misc Hmmm ... right, but given Napster was killed by the legal system not competition if I recall this correctly.   @duncanhart I didn't know about that, but then, I'm not British. Was that basically the British version of Minitel in France and BTX in Germany? (which I am familiar with) @J12t Yes, similar in concept. Perhaps also look at Ceefax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceefax @J12t depending on definition of open, there may be some relevant examples in ch. 5 "social context of infrastructure" of the new book how infrastructure works: "electricity, water and transportation systems worldwide all followed this pattern as well, merging fragmented private networks into unified public systems" @Ruth_Mottram Did Encyclopedia Britannica still operate as a network at the time, or just a traditional publisher?   @J12t Perhaps the regulation of the USA power grid in 1934? |
@J12t napster