donderdag 28 maart 2013

ArchiveTeam, Google Reader en start-ups

Jason Scott
Held Jason Scott werd geïnterviewd door de Huffington Post: Jason Scott's Archive Team Is Saving The Web From Itself (And Rescuing Your Stuff)

Over Google Reader:
Though the demise of Google Reader has seriously wrecked people, the Archive Team hasn't yet found a way to access the data necessary to create a backup of its information. In Scott's view, Google is guilty of more than disappointing its users: In the process of building Google Reader, it effectively crushed rivals and now leaves few alternatives in its wake.
"It's like, 'Thanks for free stuff, but you are murdering markets by doing it," Scott said.
Over respect voor gebruikers
He's dissatisfied with what he perceives as a general disregard for preserving web history and people's personal data. As he sees it, users remain "the most ignored factor in a website."
He's irked by the cheeriness with which entrepreneurs announce that because of an acquisition or change in strategy, terabytes of user data will be deleted. A friend of the Archive Team recently created a Tumblr, “Our Incredible Journey,” that highlights companies' attempts to spin their closure as a blessing for all involved --though the culmination of a "fun and exciting ride" can mean mass erasure of personal information.
"It sounds like you're holding hands with your userbase on the beach and walking with them into the sunset, when in fact you're choking them to death in the ocean," says Scott. "There's the fake civility written in shutdown messages that reflects people trying to act like somebody who cares."
En over start-ups
While "thinking like a startup" has become a mantra inside companies large and small, and startups are cheered for their founders' risk-taking ways, Scott is one of few dissenting voices troubled by the constant reinvention such a mindset entails. The decreasing costs of running and building sites means new products can be born faster. At the same time, they can die off more quickly, too.
"The startup world does not like people like me because their attitude is 'fail often, fail frequently, sell quickly,' and I don't come from that world and I don't like that world," explains Scott. "Startups are not made with a long-term goal. Their goal is to make something that can be sold, and that attitude pervades everywhere: 'Do it for a year and if it's not working, kill it.' And I just don't like that because it leads to these unannounced shutdowns and the loss of user content."
Ik zeg Jason Scot voor Ketelaarlezing 2013!

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Red een website met de Archive Team Warrior

Plaatje: Jason Scott van Wasabicube

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