newspeak

The “future”–the immediate range of years before us, as consumers–won’t be cabled but beamed. I hardly think this is surprising news; I and many others have been predicting this eventuality for at least the last decade. (It’s taking longer than I thought, but then, I didn’t really appreciate the burden of past commitments, property, habits, even individuals on the matter of the present.) What I find concerning is the usual: the lack of real open source productivity apps. I fear this lack will affect the locus of innovation, and thus as much its nature and scope. Instead of something breathtakingly new, we’re likely to see more respins of the old. Besides this creeping banality, there will be the marginalisation not of “open source” as such–hardly–but of open source productivity apps that public and private sector enterprises will consider adopting. And given the very predictable upcoming needs of billions of young students, urban professionals, and even landless migrants, I’m left wondering: what apps will they use that are not proprietary, not hobbled and hobbling in their freedom?

“If you think this is just a temporary state of affairs, remember that 90% of Americans had landlines 10 years ago, according to Statista (based on a survey by the U.S. Center for Disease Control). Now, only half do.”

The percentage of American adults with broadband has actually dropped over the last two years.

Source: Broadband usage dropping in the United States – Business Insider