Read Write Own summary

In today’s era of social media titans, it’s hard to imagine, but the internet began as a wild frontier – a decentralized network where anyone could innovate and create, without permission. You didn’t need to own a television station or a printing press; anyone could create a webpage which was instantly accessible across the world, by anyone. Early internet pioneers saw this openness as the basis for a new, more empowered, more democratic society, immune from centralized control and censorship. 

But the dream didn’t last. Over time, big tech companies gradually began to take over the internet, imposing their rules and extracting value from popular use of their platforms. Facebook, Google, Amazon and a few others dominate the internet today, stifling competition. 

The author calls the first internet era the “read” era – and it lasted roughly from 1990 to 2005. It was driven by the development of internet protocol networks that democratized information sharing – allowing anyone to access content on websites. 

The author calls it the "read" era because the main empowering capability the early internet provided was allowing regular people to easily read content online from websites. Even if someone didn't publish a website themselves, they could now access and consume information published by others on this new medium.

Next came the second internet era: the “read-write” era – lasting roughly from 2006 to 2020.  This is when corporate networks like Facebook and other social platforms flourished by enabling anyone to write and publish content that reaches mass audiences.

In contrast to the initial "read” era, where people accessed online information in a read-only or consumption mode, this second era provided average internet users with simple yet powerful tools to become publishers and creators themselves. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others allowed anyone with internet access to not just take in content made by others but also to share their ideas, perspectives, creations, and more with the world – by commenting, uploading, or publishing, directly through user-friendly interfaces. But this new functionality came at a cost. These “read-write” services were part of a centralized, corporate-controlled model – extracting the ownership and economic value created through all this user-generated content.

Like an empire annexing autonomous villages, these Big Tech platforms have swallowed the vibrant ecosystems that nurtured early online life. The spirit that animated the web's early days threatens to flicker out.

But the game’s not over yet. There’s an emerging technology that could turn things around: the blockchain. Truly participatory networks require something that the walled gardens of app stores and social media platforms lack – shared ownership and governance. The blockchain offers this – a power shift away from centralized chokepoints and back into communities. 

Let’s find out how.