Don't protocols have owners too? Created 2023-04-12 Connect existing Create new Generalizes Specializes Suggests Suggested by Questions Questioned by Has Response Suggested by Questions Suggests Suggested by Questions Questioned by Issue Position Argument Apps, platforms, and frameworks have owners, and every owner has an agenda. Apps, platforms, and frameworks lend themselves to quasi-natural monopolies that levy a form of excise on the public. Even practitioners seem to gravitate toward platforms and frameworks. People overwhelmingly believe that the current state of platforms and protocols is "just how technology is." People with sufficiently niche information management needs have a problem such that there often is no "app for that". Technically sophisticated people may be self-sufficient enough to hack their own private, non-protocol solutions, and thus discount the value of protocols. The public understands "apps", and a sophisticated subset of the public understands "platforms", but few understand "protocols". To enforce their platform monopolies, tech companies either obfuscate their content or retain physical control of it. Who are these people with niche information needs? Enlist UX designers and their close professional relatives. If you could tell what the informational content being exchanged meant, you could operate over it using your own (or third-party) tools. People would demand more protocol-based solutions if they understood the role protocols play in facilitating interoperation while frustrating the formation of monopolies. Protocols are essential to a more equitable civilization. Protocols may have designers and stewards but they are generally appropriate for situations that are "too big to nail". Show the public that protocols are what make Alice’s app able to talk to Bob’s app, or Charlie’s app, or anybody else’s app, with no payola or even permission required. STRATEGY: Aim at business processes that are not worth the candle to productize. STRATEGY: Aim at business processes that are siloed by vendors. STRATEGY: Aim at business processes that diverge from/conflict with any extant vendor's interest to productize. STRATEGY: Design an environment that subverts the need for "an app for that" by making it dirt cheap to make—or simply use—a protocol instead. Target a group who is technically sophisticated enough to understand the value of protocols as well as articulate enough to explain it to those who are less sophisticated. Target (initially) people who are technically sophisticated enough to understand what a protocol is, but lack the skills to hack their own private, non-protocol solutions. If people got a taste of how their information environment could function without the obstructive behaviour of platform monopolies, they would be loath to give it up. Protocols decouple processes from specific social and/or economic relationships. The learning cultures around protocols can be partly or wholly permissionless. UX designers and related disciplines have niche information needs and are highly articulate about the technology they use, though they do not exhibit the short-circuiting behaviour of developers. UX people are hungry for tools and coverage for their tool needs is sparse. Generalizes Specializes Suggests Suggested by Questions Questioned by Has Response Suggested by Questions Suggests Suggested by Questions Questioned by Issue Position Argument