Re: [projectvrm] Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak condemns the clou d

[Don Marti < >]

begin Doc Searls quotation of Tue, Aug 07, 2012 at 05:45:22AM -0500:

> > Additionally, Woz was also complaining about adhesion, about "loss of 
> > control," about the indifference of someone who gets paid whether your 
> > data is safe or not, like a lazy nightwatchman. Add to that 
> > state-sponsored infiltration, cyberwarfare, and so on, not to mention the 
> > WHG - aka Simon Bar Sinister model of "we own you now;" as Mary so 
> > eloquently described; and it all adds up to pretty risky.
> > 
> > I suggest to Doc or others that an attempt be made to bring Woz up to 
> > speed. I think he will become a forceful and well-known advocate for the 
> > Intention Economy, and end user control.
> 
> I agree. I also don't (or barely) know Woz, but that shouldn't stop me. Or 
> anybody.

We're leaving out the important fact that the personal
computing revolution failed.

Woz _owns_ his computer in the same sense that he
owns his toaster, but most users don't.  They just
pay for it.

People don't have a _personal_ computer, but instead,
the platform equivalent of a long-running guerrila
conflict, where internal factions backed by OS vendor,
the media player vendor, advertisers, and the Russian
Mafia fight over who gets to catch the rats (users)
in the rubble.

The answer to "Is your data safe?" is the same on
the PC and the cloud: "I don't know."   The lazy
nightwatchman effect is just as great, or greater,
on the PC.

This subject seems to come up a lot in discussions of
malware, privacy, DRM, ToSs, EULAs...the nerd forums
go into a frenzy wondering how people could be giving
up so much control, when the people never had it.

-- 
Don Marti                    
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/