Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
clean up
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
  • Loading branch information
1cg committed Sep 21, 2023
1 parent 6e37e98 commit 709cfbf
Showing 1 changed file with 13 additions and 8 deletions.
21 changes: 13 additions & 8 deletions www/content/essays/right-click-view-source.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ by the free software movement.

The [#ViewSource](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-source_URI_scheme) affordance available in browsers allowed people
to understand and "own", at least in an informal way, the web in a way that even most FSF-conforming applications could
not: you had direct access to the "source", or at least _part_ of the source, of the application available, from
not: you had direct access to the "source", or at least _part_ of the source, of the application available from
_within_ the application itself.

You could copy-and-paste (or save) the "source" (HTML, JavaScript & CSS) and start modifying it, without a complicated
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -77,24 +77,29 @@ previously [commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons) were privatized.
This was a traumatic event in English history, as evidenced by this poem by an 18th century anon:

> The law locks up the man or woman
>
> Who steals the goose from off the common,
>
> But lets the greater felon loose
> Who steals the common from the goose.
>
> 18th century anon
> Who steals the common from the goose.
>
> --18th century anon
In the last decade, the web has gone through a period of "Digital Enclosure", where ["Walled Gardens"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_platform),
such as Facebook & Twitter, have replaced the earlier, more open and more chaotic blogs and internet forums.

### Technical Enclosure

Many (most?) developers have decried this trend. However, despite recognizing the danger of an increasingly closed internet,
many web developers don't consider their own technical decisions and how those decisions can also contribute to the
disappearance of web's _culture_ of openness.
Many (most?) web developers have decried this trend.

However, despite recognizing the danger of an increasingly closed internet, many web developers don't consider their own
technical decisions and how those decisions can also contribute to the disappearance of web's _culture_ of openness.

Inadvertently, for the most part, technical trends and decisions in web development in the last two decades has lead
Inadvertently (for the most part) technical trends and decisions in web development in the last two decades have lead
to what we term a "Technical Enclosure" of the web, a processes whereby technical decisions chip away at the #ViewSource
affordance that Cory Doctrow discusses in the opening quote of this article.
affordance that Cory Doctrow discusses in the opening quote of this article, an affordance that existed as a commons
for early web developers.

To see a stark example of the decline of the [#ViewSource](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-source_URI_scheme) affordance
in web development and Technical Enclosure in action, we can look at what is perhaps the most popular web page on the
Expand Down

0 comments on commit 709cfbf

Please sign in to comment.