People Got To Move
People Got To Move
From the soundtrack of White Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhuQZ5p9Rkg
Originally shared by Edward Morbius
'When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary to not make a decision"
-- Lord Falkland
There've been some voices making or advocating a mad dash for the exits following Google's sunset announcement that the public Google+ will close in August 2019. I don't think this is wise, or particularly significant. Some points to consider.
We have time. There are ten months to final sunset. Some services (data take out, static site) may be active beyond August 2019. Google have not yet made this clear, and should. I am asking them about this, you should too
There are many alternatives. The big commercial names we all know, smaller and lesser options, both proprietary and open. The landscape has changed.
There's a tremendous opportunity for change. Several G+ exodus communities were created, my own is named The Beginning is Near specifically because I see apotential for radically restructuring the online landscape. It may be in Google's interest to help in this.
Assessments take time. We don't have a lot, but between now and mid January 2019, collecting alternatives, determining features that matter, and eliminating obvious disqualifications, in about that order, seems sensible.
Preserving community is utmost. Google+ is not a unitary community, it's an interconnected web of likely 1,000s to 10,000s of communities (5-10 million active users, 100 or so per real community (10^6 / 10^2 ~= 10^4). Each of those should be assessing its own mood, needs, goals, concerns, capabilities.
(Neither I, G+MM, nor anyone else tell you what to do, though many will try. Our aim is to help structure, guide, and inform that process, if you want that.)
There's value in a collective exodus voice. This is a large, vibrant, active, and influential group, or group of groups. Platforms are competing for interest and attention. One thing we can do, and are doing, is inviting and hosting Q&A sessions with platforms. AMAs with alternate sites and platforms start Monday with Eugen "Gargron" Rochko of Mastodon (1pm US/Eastern). Another candidate are Google themselves.
Fast-movers may be the least influential. It's paradoxical, but they express the least fixity to any one platform. They can (and will) migrate again, easily, if need arises.. Medium-movers have sway as they move with consideration, reluctance, and have assets to retain and manage. The final group are slow movers, who will (or plan to) remain out of lack of capacity, loyalty, interest, or other motives. This group may be vocal, but strategically and tactically this is a very limiting choice.
I count myself as a medium mover.
Google+ Communities have Particular influence. The largest of these have hundreds of thousands of members, many report thousands or tens of thousands. Both Communities and their members must make migration choices, including of previous discussion, other content, and other data.
Interim camps are likely to exist. These should facilitate community continuity and planning but without high entry or exit costs. Email lists, Reddit forums, Yahoo and Google groups, or similar tools can serve this role. Beacon points on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon, Diaspora, etc., can be used as well. Points of contact, planning, and organisation.
Collaboration tools such as Wikis are tremendously useful. Wikia allows creating these easily. Mind the spammers and vandals (I've some recent experience).
Final days on G+ may be grim. Few voices, little spam flagging, mostly bots and scammers. Community moderators will leave, filling those with spam. Google's AI-driven flagging tools will likely fails as the signal feeding them will be noise. I anticipate my own exit around April/May 2019, and little activity for some time prior.
Many of us are rethinking online priorities, strategies, and goals. I've got a basic plan. It involves far more of my own interests driving it than external ones. Voices I've admired and respected seem to have similar thoughts.
Centralisation provides some goods. Search, discovery, reach, engagement, directory (of contacts), spam and abuse mitigation, and resilience against legal and hacking attacks, among them. Decentralising these will prove challenging. It shouldn't be impossible.
Centralisation provides many bads. We've had a collective dawning awareness of this over the past 5-10 years, though the principles and dangers are ancient knowledge. Defanging the bads whilst preserving the goods is our challenge.
There will be and are many attempts to influence you. Hell, I'm trying to influence you, right here and now. Look for the voices who seek to serve your and your community's interests, not yours. Hasty uninformed actions serve the manipulative influencers.
Having a clear goal, timeline, group understanding, and awareness of options, tools, and capabilities are your greatest assets. Cultivate them.
The *Google+ Mass Migration Community (https://plus.google.com/communities/112164273001338979772), my smaller The Beginning is Near (https://plus.google.com/communities/107813327011154265528), the #PlexodusWiki (https://social.antefriguserat.de/), the /r/PLExodus subreddit (https://reddit.com/r/plexodus/), and similar efforts elsewhere (many referenced from these) are places to obtain and provide information, guidance, and meeting points, as well as share contacts and directories.
Use them.
Contribute to them.
Let's get a Move on.
From the soundtrack of White Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhuQZ5p9Rkg
Originally shared by Edward Morbius
'When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary to not make a decision"
-- Lord Falkland
There've been some voices making or advocating a mad dash for the exits following Google's sunset announcement that the public Google+ will close in August 2019. I don't think this is wise, or particularly significant. Some points to consider.
We have time. There are ten months to final sunset. Some services (data take out, static site) may be active beyond August 2019. Google have not yet made this clear, and should. I am asking them about this, you should too
There are many alternatives. The big commercial names we all know, smaller and lesser options, both proprietary and open. The landscape has changed.
There's a tremendous opportunity for change. Several G+ exodus communities were created, my own is named The Beginning is Near specifically because I see apotential for radically restructuring the online landscape. It may be in Google's interest to help in this.
Assessments take time. We don't have a lot, but between now and mid January 2019, collecting alternatives, determining features that matter, and eliminating obvious disqualifications, in about that order, seems sensible.
Preserving community is utmost. Google+ is not a unitary community, it's an interconnected web of likely 1,000s to 10,000s of communities (5-10 million active users, 100 or so per real community (10^6 / 10^2 ~= 10^4). Each of those should be assessing its own mood, needs, goals, concerns, capabilities.
(Neither I, G+MM, nor anyone else tell you what to do, though many will try. Our aim is to help structure, guide, and inform that process, if you want that.)
There's value in a collective exodus voice. This is a large, vibrant, active, and influential group, or group of groups. Platforms are competing for interest and attention. One thing we can do, and are doing, is inviting and hosting Q&A sessions with platforms. AMAs with alternate sites and platforms start Monday with Eugen "Gargron" Rochko of Mastodon (1pm US/Eastern). Another candidate are Google themselves.
Fast-movers may be the least influential. It's paradoxical, but they express the least fixity to any one platform. They can (and will) migrate again, easily, if need arises.. Medium-movers have sway as they move with consideration, reluctance, and have assets to retain and manage. The final group are slow movers, who will (or plan to) remain out of lack of capacity, loyalty, interest, or other motives. This group may be vocal, but strategically and tactically this is a very limiting choice.
I count myself as a medium mover.
Google+ Communities have Particular influence. The largest of these have hundreds of thousands of members, many report thousands or tens of thousands. Both Communities and their members must make migration choices, including of previous discussion, other content, and other data.
Interim camps are likely to exist. These should facilitate community continuity and planning but without high entry or exit costs. Email lists, Reddit forums, Yahoo and Google groups, or similar tools can serve this role. Beacon points on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon, Diaspora, etc., can be used as well. Points of contact, planning, and organisation.
Collaboration tools such as Wikis are tremendously useful. Wikia allows creating these easily. Mind the spammers and vandals (I've some recent experience).
Final days on G+ may be grim. Few voices, little spam flagging, mostly bots and scammers. Community moderators will leave, filling those with spam. Google's AI-driven flagging tools will likely fails as the signal feeding them will be noise. I anticipate my own exit around April/May 2019, and little activity for some time prior.
Many of us are rethinking online priorities, strategies, and goals. I've got a basic plan. It involves far more of my own interests driving it than external ones. Voices I've admired and respected seem to have similar thoughts.
Centralisation provides some goods. Search, discovery, reach, engagement, directory (of contacts), spam and abuse mitigation, and resilience against legal and hacking attacks, among them. Decentralising these will prove challenging. It shouldn't be impossible.
Centralisation provides many bads. We've had a collective dawning awareness of this over the past 5-10 years, though the principles and dangers are ancient knowledge. Defanging the bads whilst preserving the goods is our challenge.
There will be and are many attempts to influence you. Hell, I'm trying to influence you, right here and now. Look for the voices who seek to serve your and your community's interests, not yours. Hasty uninformed actions serve the manipulative influencers.
Having a clear goal, timeline, group understanding, and awareness of options, tools, and capabilities are your greatest assets. Cultivate them.
The *Google+ Mass Migration Community (https://plus.google.com/communities/112164273001338979772), my smaller The Beginning is Near (https://plus.google.com/communities/107813327011154265528), the #PlexodusWiki (https://social.antefriguserat.de/), the /r/PLExodus subreddit (https://reddit.com/r/plexodus/), and similar efforts elsewhere (many referenced from these) are places to obtain and provide information, guidance, and meeting points, as well as share contacts and directories.
Use them.
Contribute to them.
Let's get a Move on.
/surveil
ReplyDeleteCara Evangelista The movie was much better. Good soundtrack, though.
ReplyDeletelike i commented on Cara's post: A guy on Top Gear drove a Prius and said, "nothing about this car appeals to me."
ReplyDelete