> Hypothesis: it would be better to live in a world where UI is mostly user-authored, and B2C is mostly an API marketplace.
I tentatively believe in this hypothesis. That's part of the reason I moved most of my computing into Emacs - I get greater control over the UI there, and reap the benefits of deep interoperability.
I think this would be a working system. You'd have a separate market for services, and a separate market for software consuming these services. I doubt most regular people would become full-blown creators, but they would happily shop for more ergonomic tools and customize them to the limit of their needs. It's kind of similar to the "right to repair", where nobody honestly expects that everyone will be fixing their appliances themselves - the point is that those who can, would, and they would also offer their services to those who can't or don't want.
I'm not sure how to get to this world. That's kind of the question in my original post - I see fixing the browser for productive use to be a potential stepping stone involving the same or similar changes.
I have one idea I'm hesitant about: it would be nice if we could force all services on the Internet to communicate with open and documented protocols and APIs, while simultaneously banning any kind of "you can only use our official app" clauses in ToS. That is, force the decoupling between a service and client software that consumes it.
I tentatively believe in this hypothesis. That's part of the reason I moved most of my computing into Emacs - I get greater control over the UI there, and reap the benefits of deep interoperability.
I think this would be a working system. You'd have a separate market for services, and a separate market for software consuming these services. I doubt most regular people would become full-blown creators, but they would happily shop for more ergonomic tools and customize them to the limit of their needs. It's kind of similar to the "right to repair", where nobody honestly expects that everyone will be fixing their appliances themselves - the point is that those who can, would, and they would also offer their services to those who can't or don't want.
I'm not sure how to get to this world. That's kind of the question in my original post - I see fixing the browser for productive use to be a potential stepping stone involving the same or similar changes.
I have one idea I'm hesitant about: it would be nice if we could force all services on the Internet to communicate with open and documented protocols and APIs, while simultaneously banning any kind of "you can only use our official app" clauses in ToS. That is, force the decoupling between a service and client software that consumes it.