Just a quick reminder that the @kiwix Project allows you to store and preserve offline **all** the content from the Wikimedia Foundation and the Gutenberg Project.
Edited 188d ago
decentralization
One of the things I've been advocating for years - and where I want to raise my voice even louder - is the importance of owning your data. #OwnYourData
Over the past few days, I’ve come across two examples of how misinformation is causing immense damage, leading people to believe that there's no alternative but to hand over their data to big corporations, putting themselves entirely in their hands.
- A well-known lawyer, just before a meeting, warned about using Teams and its new "virtual assistant," which joins conferences before anyone else and transcribes everything. When I pointed out that it would be wise to use alternative tools (like Jitsi, for example, but there are others), he abruptly ended the conversation, saying, "We've lost this war. There's no alternative anymore."
That wasn’t the right moment for a detailed discussion, so I just noted that alternatives do exist - but if no one starts using them, and if we passively accept certain behaviors from certain companies, things will never improve for us.
- Just now, I received another one of those emails that hurt more in the heart than in the wallet: "Our e-commerce is taking off, so we’re moving it to Shopify to better manage our growth."
I replied, trying to explain that handing over a growing e-commerce business to a third-party company (right now, they have full access to their own server - meaning all their databases, data, etc., are under their control) means losing ownership of it. Prices could change at any moment, contract terms could shift negatively, and, worst case scenario, if Shopify itself faced issues (which seems impossible today, but think of giants like Kodak), they could lose everything. Of course, they’ll do what they think is best, but I feel obligated to warn them.
Luckily, others are making the opposite choice. But I keep wondering: since these big platforms aren’t exactly cheap, rather than "selling themselves" to them just for (potentially) fewer headaches, wouldn’t it be worth paying someone (not me, of course, but someone working exclusively for them) to handle these things - ensuring they retain full ownership of their business and their data?
#DataOwnership #Decentralization #BigTech #DataRights #MyDataMyChoice #TakeBackControl
The lack of an algorithm sometimes makes me lose track of my timeline. And that’s okay.
Because in return, as I scroll, I come across boosts and posts from people I don’t know. Real people - not bots, not paid influencers pushing a product.
I see stunning photos taken by someone with just 10 followers - photos I’d never see on a commercial platform. I read opinions, ideas, and advice from everyday people, like me, passionate and eager to share their thoughts with others.
This is what the Fediverse is about: communication, sharing, dialogue - not numbers.