"as it stands, right now app.net seems to boil down to a group of predominantly affluent white men deciding What Is Good, w/everyone else invited to join in later (if they happen to agree & have some cash on hand). i get that this is no different from virtually any other silicon valley start-up, & “as a start-up”, i don’t think app.net is super-compelling. what has my attention is the lofty goals part: if something is really going to be an ‘enlightened movement’, i think it has to start from being a lot more diverse & inclusive from the beginning. app.net wants to be “what twitter could have been,” & i’m wondering what app.net could have been (could still be?) if its early adopter userbase included a broader range of perspectives & ways of knowing." #tech #elitism #web #arrogance #pub

"In addition to market appeal based subtly and not-so-subtly on fleeing from the ‘Others,’ and on utopian rhetoric about fleeing from evil corporations (“Open. Free. Joy. Wonder. Peace. Perfection”), App.net taps into the same neoliberal self-interest on which all privatization ventures depend. Much of the enthusiasm I’ve seen in my own Twitter feed has been from people who are angry about being “the product,” but if there’s a harm to being the product (such that would motivate those who can pay to join a different social networking site to do so), shouldn’t we maybe address that harm directly and collectively?" "Buying our way out of personal exposure to a problem doesn’t address the problem itself, and it still leaves those who can’t afford to buy their way out exposed." #tech #elitism #bullshit #argument #poignant #pub