You’re probably already aware of the huge problem with the internet today - how most people are big tech peasants. What if I told you that some of us are participating in a peaceful, peasants’ revolt and you can too?

In this blog post, I hope to give you a vision for a future where you are an internet land owner rather than one of the many who are under the authoritarian rule of Google, Apple, Facebook and the like.

When the internet was in its infancy, websites were much more distributed and information was spread across the few people who could host a website such as universities or technologically capable individuals. Soon after, companies like MySpace invented platforms where you could kind of host your own site even if you didn’t know how to run a web server. This was eventually followed by companies like Facebook and Twitter. Search engines also were, at one time, more abundant - though they are increasing in number again in the last five years or so. But now, the dominant player in search also creates computers, phones, watches and even provides cloud storage services - that’s one company.

Eventually everyone started to realize that by gathering under these central companies within the internet, that meant that there was now, basically, a king who could also make laws and enforce them by putting offenders in jail, excommunicating them, or placing them in the stocks.

Often Kingdoms start because there was some good king who allowed its citizens to prosper abundantly. That was the case all of the FAANG companies. But like all kingdoms, subsequent kings sometimes are good and sometimes are bad. Without any underlying, guiding principles, the rules of the kingdom are determined by whims of the king. That seems to be the case with big tech.

In case you’re wondering, the “king” in these situations isn’t necessarily the CEO - just the board of individuals who decide what’s right and wrong for the platform.

The question we really need to ask now is, “what guiding principles do Google, Facebook and the like live by?” They aren’t necessarily shaped by the majority opinion. So what does shape them? Are they just like old-fashioned Kings - do thy just want money, power and women?

Furhter, who gets to choose what the guiding principle is for the company? If the answer is “each person on the content team”, then we have a mess on our hands. Because one guy thinks the guiding principle is what makes the most money, another thinks the guiding principle is whatever the majority of users want, another thinkgs it’s whatever the Buddha says. These are not compatible with each other.

So what we end up with is a bunch of companies flopping around with the clumsy guiding principles based on the political and cultural news cycles of silicon valley rich folks. And that is a very unreliable entity to depend on for ensuring your personal values aren’t going to be considered deplorable in these internet kingdoms.

I propose an alternative political order - I mean software. Although, we signed a sort of contract with big tech when we accepted the terms of service and became subjects of their kingdom, they haven’t upheld the freedoms due to individuals and organizations that utilize their platforms. We should declare independence. We should place the responsibility of software services on ourselves and provide those services to the communities we’re already a part of wherever that’s possible. That may be a our families, friends, chruches, civic clubs, etc.

Here’s a practical example - your family needs a repository of old family photos or videos that you took from the 90s. Instead of making everyone use an Apple device or making everyone use Google Photos, set up your own server to host and share those files with the family.

Another example may be your church needs a shared calendar to post on the website. Host it yourself on a freedom-respecting alternative.

So how would you get started doing something like this? Well, I’d recommend starting where I started - a service that doesn’t necessarily require constant up-time such as a cloud storage service. And there several freedom-respecting alternatives out there. The one I use is called NextCloud.

NextCloud is a server-side software suite that kind of provides similar services to the Google suite. It provides file storage like Google Drive, Calender and contact management, a cloud-based office suite with word document or spreadsheet editors, and Call, chat and video conferencing.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably the family’s tech guy. That means, with a little research, you are porobably totally capable of managing these sorts of services yourself.

Now, there are definitely a set of challenges involved when hosting your own software such as the need to think about security, availability and backups. But such is the life of a land owner. When you own property, you’ve got to take care of it. But that also means you have complete control, unquestionable privacy, and no concern that your crazy religious beliefs are going to be considered abominable next week.

AND it’s not like you can never go back to the kingdoms of FAANG to visit. But, once you’re a land owner, you don’t really need to or want to. The air over here smells fresh and free and empowering.

Here’s a quote from Noah Webster. He was examining the guiding principles of the U.S. constitution:

“Let the people have property, and they will have power–a power that will for ever be exerted to prevent a restriction of the press, and abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgement of any other privilege.”

See ya next time!