Building Trust a Step at a Time the Silicon Valley Way
August 2, 2023
Note: Dinobaby here: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid. Services are now ejecting my cute little dinosaur gif. (´?_?`) Like my posts related to the Dark Web, the MidJourney art appears to offend someone’s sensibilities in the datasphere. If I were not 78, I might look into these interesting actions. But I am and I don’t really care.
I know that most companies are not really “in” Silicon Valley. It is a figure of speech to put certain firms and their business practices in a basket. I then try to find something useful to say about the basket. Please, feel free to disagree. Just note that I am a dinobaby, and I am often reluctant to discard my perceptions. Look at the positive side of this mental orientation: If and when you are 78, you too can analyze from a perspective guaranteed to be different from the 20-somethings who are the future of lots of stuff; for example, who gets medical care. Think about that.
I read “Meta, Amazon and Microsoft team up to take down Google Maps.” The source is a newspaper which I label “estimable tabloid.” The story caught my attention because it identified what this dinobaby perceives as collusion among commercial enterprises. My hunch is that some people living outside the US might label the business approach different. Classification debates are the most fun when held at information science trade shows. Vendors explain why their classification system is the absolute best way to put information in baskets. Exciting.
So my basket contains three outfits which want to undermine or get the biggest piece of the map action that Google controls. None of these outfits are monopolistic. If they were, the Cracker Jack US government agency charged with taking action against outfits that JP Morgan would definitely want to own would not lose its cases against a few big tech outfits.
The article explains:
The Operture Maps Foundation is an open initiative, making it a compelling alternative to Google Maps for app and software-makers. Google Maps takes a closed approach, giving Google greater control over how its map data is used and implemented. It also charges app developers for access to Google Maps, based on how many times the app’s users call on mapping info.
I wonder if this suggests that Operture Maps is different from the Google?
The article points out:
Overture Maps Foundation was established in 2022, as a partnership between Amazon AWS, Microsoft, Meta and TomTom. Its aim is “to create the smartest map on the planet,” according to TomTom VP of Engineering Mike Harrell. It also aims to make sure all your map needs in the future won’t be supplied by either Google or Apple.
I interpret this passage to mean that three big dogs want to team up to become a bigger dog. The consequence of being a bigger dog is that it can chow down on the goodies destined for the behemoths Apple and Google.
Viewed from the perspective of a consumer, I see this as an attempt for three “competitors” to team up and go after Apple and Google. Each company has a map business. Viewed as a person who worked in government entities for a number of years, I can interpret this tie up as a way to get some free meals and maybe a boondoggle from one or more lobbyists working on behalf of these firms. Viewed as someone concerned about the ineffectual nature of US regulation of the activities of big tech, I am more inclined than ever to use a paper map.
Will the Silicon Valley “way” work in other nation states? Probably not. China has taken steps to manage some of these super duper outfits within their borders. The European Union is skeptical of many big tech, Silicon Valley ideas. But at the end of the fiscal year, will objections matter?
I know what my answer is. Grab that paper map. We’re going on a road trip with location tracking and selective information whether I like it or not. I think I trust my paper map.
Stephen E Arnold, August 2, 2023
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