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I'm a dev who has a vision for a new internet. I've even started building software, Ask Me Anything!

Joshua Johnson on August 17, 2018

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Chris James

Is it called Pied Piper?

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Joshua Johnson

Not familiar.

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Chris James • Edited

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Vall...

In the fifth season, the Pied Piper team gets new offices and hires a large team of coders to help work on Richard's new internet.

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Ben Halpern • Edited

What’s the vision?!?

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Joshua Johnson

As a user of the web I want to have access to services, apps, etc. without having to lose ownership of my data.

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Mike

Software like this already does exist, and is already evolving. Decentralization, federation is where the web is turning to, a simplistic service that can be federated, and ideally decentralized.

You may want to look into things like activitystreams/activitypub, etc. for federation. The fundamental issue with using any web service is you do lose ownership of said data, unless it's decentralized and you run the node, you lose 99% of the data to whomever owns the service

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Joshua Johnson

Yes I’m well aware of all the attempts at federation software. I’ve researched heavily into this. But there is a reason it hasn’t seen higher adoption rates. It’s not easy.

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Mike

Implementation is not the easiest for most, but if you read the specification entirely, it does make sense. For example, Mastodon platform brings ~ 1,000,000 users - if you can federate, it's a channel for ex blogging, posting updates, etc.

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Joshua Johnson

Yes. I’ve looked into Mastodon. But again if you use them, your data is stuck on their platform. We need a platform where data is agnostic.

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Mike
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Joshua Johnson

Yes. I would love to see a day when the end user is back in control of their web experience. Similar to how it was in the beginning of the web.

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Ben Halpern

How far along are you in terms of implementation details?

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Joshua Johnson

I have gotten as far as creating the base application. I have put several clients on this application in production, but it is not ready for primetime because users can't configure it without having knowledge of development.

It's a REST application and database abstraction tool that allows users to administer permissions, data, etc.

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Maria Zaitseva

How do bees make honey so viscid?

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Joshua Johnson

This is what google gave me:

"It then regurgitates the inverted nectar into a cell of the honeycomb. Before they cap it they need to get rid of even more of the water content The hive bees beat their wings furiously, fanning the nectar to evaporate its remaining water content. As the water evaporates, the sugars thicken into honey."

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George

The internet is already a great thing, but great things obviosuly can be made better, which I hope to see you accomplish. How do you plan on building, distrubiting and getting the word out about your idea when its ready?

Also one of the most talked about topics on the internet is privacy, what are you plans privacy wise?

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Joshua Johnson

The plan is to roll out this new architecture, by working on gettting businesses on the idea first. As I'm building out the software, this is getting used as a solution for small businesses who find it important to store their data in their data warehouse. Once we get a good level of business adoption, I plan to roll this out to consumers. Providing them some kind of value (other than storing your data on site).

As far as privacy goes, if you change the model in which you make money online away from using your users as the product. It's a lot easier to change privacy rules. I think the biggest issue with privacy is the fact that people aren't even aware of how their privacy is being violated. So there's a requirement for whoever solves that problem to first raise awareness of it. I'm not sure that my goal is privacy. I'm certainly aware that a system like this could allow users who care about that to use products and services a lot easier if they maintained their own data. Because then portability becomes that much easier.

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Darkø Tasevski

What kind of software? Is it some kind of privacy helper extension? What are your goals? :D

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Joshua Johnson

It's a REST application. To put it in it's simplest form, it's a database abstraction tool that provides users with the ability to create REST resources and define permissions around who can access those resources. The user also has the ability to allow another actor to create resources on their behalf.

The software comes bundled with a UI that a user can go through and administer their data.

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Joshua Johnson

My main goals is to allow users of the internet to have choices and not just be stuck on one platform.

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Vincenzo

is this a Silicon Valley joke?

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Joshua Johnson

Nope. I believe in this idea and think it would work to make a better internet.

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Syed Faraaz Ahmad

In the absence of a network connection, is it possible to connect to nearby devices using other means? eg: bluetooth and use that as an internet of sorts?

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Ben Sinclair

Do you mean "a new internet" or do you mean "a new type of service X on the Internet", where X is one of "social network", "news media", "drug cartel", etc?

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Joshua Johnson

A new way to engage content on the web without having to give up your personal data.

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Daniel Neuman

Sounds like a big project! Looking forward to hear more about it.
Have you had a look at Scuttlebutt scuttlebutt.nz/ ? They have some ideas which might match your ambitions.

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Joshua Johnson

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I think what they are doing is awesome. I definitely enjoy the way they solved this problem.

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Douglas R Andreani

Does it relay on the tcp/ip protocol? If no, how are working to guarantee it's scalability and reliability in the future?

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Joshua Johnson

Yes. It is tcp/ip. Think more like REST apis

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Damien Perkins

This may sound rude, but I don't intend it to be - why would I use this 'new internet'? What's in it for me if I'm content with the current state of the internet?

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Joshua Johnson

No 1 product is for everyone, my friend. If you don't find value in a product, I wouldn't expect you to use it and I'm okay with that.

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Valentin Berlier

Oof