Platforms aren’t inherently extractive. Wu defines them as any space that “brings together two or more groups to transact or interact while reducing the costs of doing so.” The internet itself is a platform. But the new web-based platforms were far less neutral. They grew at breakneck speed, and then, once network effects had made them... See more

“If creators who are actually producing aren’t going to reap the rewards, what’s going to be the initial economic incentive?

In “This Is for Everyone,” Berners-Lee argues that the web’s lack of compassion is “a design issue ” that can be fixed. “There’s still time,” he writes, “to build machines that serve the human,” that “promote the dignity of our fragile species on this isolated globe.” It’s a moving vision. But it’s hard to reconcile with the entropy of today’s... See more