I’ve noticed a change on YouTube videos of late: the like button shows the number of thumbs up, but the dislike button has no such numeric count.
Engagement with these platforms is often measured in the number of views, the number of likes, the number of comments.
I wonder if that small change will result in a change in the number of comments? What about those that go along the lines of “200 idiots who know nothing”.
All this to say that I’ve been reading a lot of late about Web 3.0. One particular observation that struck was “You’ve been happy to exchange your content to the big platforms for a like or heart” – the context being that large centralised platforms have for the last twenty years or so garnered all the value of the work / content of the plebs who use these platforms.
Another useful mental model of Web 3.0 came from Andrew Chen, a VC at Andreessen Horowitz who described it:
Web 1.0 – Read
Web 2.0 – Read/Write
Web 3.0 – Read/Write/Own
There’s a lot of content that gets created (labor) that is not compensated in the current digital economic model. The dream of the Decentralised Web, or Web 3.0 with its blockchains and cryptocurrencies and smart contracts is to change the game in a way that value accrues to the creator. Communities, something I am truly obsessed about, care about creating value for not just the individuals but indeed for the community. The promise of Web 3.0 is to bring that vision to life.
They call this a rabbit hole, and I’m about to tumble down one, at least in my readings.
By the way, Natalie Merchant’s performance is amazing.