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< | ELIMINATING GOOGLE FROM MY LIFE: A More Challenging Endeavor than Eliminating Facebook Was [FIRST DRAFT] | >
> | MAKING THE SECURE SWITCH: Steps Needed to Convince Google Talk Users to Switch to FreedomBox's Secure Messaging Platform [REWRITE] | | | | |
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< | -- By DavidKorvin - 7 Jan 2012 | >
> | -- By DavidKorvin - 1 Apr 2013 | | |
Introduction | |
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< | Throughout the semester, we discussed in detail the multiple freedom problems and restrictions that Facebook and Google imposes on its users. As mentioned in my first essay, I have found it rather easy to eliminate Facebook from my life completely, but to this point, I have been unable to do the same with Google. In particular, “Gmail” is the product that I still feel compelled to use on a daily basis, and it is not because of its e-mail function, but rather because of the “Gchat” function that I access by using my Gmail account. | >
> | FreedomBox, which has the goal “building software for smart devices whose engineered purpose is to work together to facilitate free communication among people, safely and securely, beyond the ambition of the strongest power to penetrate,” has a complete, secure Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) messaging platform in its 1.0 version. Google Talk, which is an instant messaging service that almost all of my friends use, is also built on this sophisticated messaging protocol. While FreedomBox’s messaging platform is secure, Google Talk is a centralized version where privacy intrusions occur. | | | | |
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< | In this essay, I will explore why I have found it much more difficult to quit Gchat than it was for me to stop using Facebook. Additionally, I will discuss some things open source programmers should aim for in designing an alternative to Gchat. | >
> | However, though FreedomBox’s messaging platform will have many application for its XMPP chat—including Pidgin, which is a multiprotocol chat client that can connect instant messaging friends all at once with conversational security—FreedomBox still faces challenges in eliminating Google Talk’s dominance of online instant messaging. | | | | |
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< | Reasons Why Gchat has become a Central Part of My Social Life | >
> | Nonetheless, the demise of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), which saw its 52% instant messaging market share in 2006 fall to less than 1% in 2011 highlights how FreedomBox and its supporters can cause a similar downfall for Google Talk in the near future. | | | | |
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< | I think there are two main reasons why Gchat has become a far more integral part of my online social life than Facebook ever was. The first factor being that I only have my closest friends as Gchat contacts (around 50), while I had many acquaintances and “friends-of-friends” on Facebook (around 700). As a result, my expectations while going on Gchat have always been higher because each time I log on I plan for a higher percentage of my online interactions to be with people that I truly care about; I cannot say that
I ever felt the same way when I used to log on to Facebook. Therefore, because my Gchat experience is only limited to my closest friends, I find it to be a much more personal and fulfilling experience than I ever found Facebook to be. | | | | |
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< | The other reason why Gchat has become such a large part of my online social presence is that my interaction with other users on this platform is immediate. As soon as I log on to Gchat, I am able to instantly see which of my friends are available and able to converse with them. Thus, as currently constituted, I feel compelled to use Gchat on a daily basis because it is the most convenient and efficient way to interact with my friends. (I even find Gchatting more convenient than texting friends because with Gchat you know the other person is available and reading your message, but when you text someone you are always somewhat unsure of when / if your message has been read.) | >
> | How Google Talk Came to Dominate Instant Messaging Among My Peers | | | | |
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< | However, though I enjoy using Gchat, I have become increasingly uncomfortable using it because I only access it through a Gmail account. I think the challenge for open source programmers moving forward will be to create an online chatting platform that is as convenient and easy to use as Gchat currently is. | >
> | I remember when I began college in 2006, everyone was using AIM; two years later, everyone I knew had switched to Google Talk and AIM was a complete afterthought. Looking back on it, I believe there was a mad rush from AIM to Google Talk for three main reasons. First, Google Talk’s messaging protocol, XMPP, was more sophisticated and had more applications than AIM’s Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime (OSCAR) protocol. (AOL tried to implement XMPP support for AIM I 2008, but the service lasted less than three months.) Second, Google Talk was integrated in Gmail, while I did not really know many people that used AOL Mail as their main e-mail address. Lastly, using Google Talk became the “cool” thing to do. | | | | |
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< | Potential Changes to Limit Gchat’s Dominance for Users in My Age Range
I think that for people in my age range to stop being as socially dependent on Gchat a two-step process needs to unfold: (1) people need to stop using Gmail [because almost everyone that uses Gchat accesses it through Gmail]; and (2) open source programmers need to create an online chatting platform that is appealing to a wide array of users.
I feel that many people, including many of my peers, feel compelled to use Gmail for the reasons that it allows for a lot of free memory and everyone else uses it. However, Gmail has disastrous privacy concerns for its users, and I think that many of my friends would not use it if Gchat did not exist as a supplement to Gmail. Thus, I think that any open source alternative to Gmail will need to incorporate a platform that is equivalent to that of Google’s Gchat function.
As a result, open source programmers need to focus on an online chat platform that allows users to immediately see who is available to chat once the user has logged on. I, like many of my peers, prefer to Gchat over texting or e-mailing because of the immediacy that the platform provides. Additionally, another advantage of gChat is that it is incredibly easy to use; all you need to do is click on your contact’s name to start a conversation with him or her.
Though I do not know much about computer programming, I have no reason to believe that building an open source equivalent of Gchat is difficult to do; however, I do think that it will be hard to convince people to switch from Gchat to the open source alternative because it is easy to use. Therefore, to be truly competitive, this open source chatting platform will need to offer a feature that Gchat cannot offer: PRIVACY. Though technologically-informed people know the privacy perils of Google and its products, I believe that the overwhelming percentage of Google users do not think Google’s privacy problems impacts them on an individual basis. As a result, any open source chat platform faces an uphill battle in convincing many Google users to stop using Google products, even when the open source platform is superior. | >
> | Suggestions for FreedomBox Movement | | | Conclusion | |
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< | Because I find Gchat to be a much more essential part of my online social life than Facebook was, I have found difficulty trying to replace it. However, I know it is not in my best interests to keep using it because of the massive restrictions on users that Google forces upon its users. For me to replace Gchat with an open source equivalent, it would need to meet the requirements I have described above. Though Gchat dominates online chatting among my peers, this does not have to continue to be the case.
The good news is, been
there, done that. The less good news is that you got the technical
story sort of backwards.
The functional quality of gchat (not an official Google service
name: it's the text messaging component of the text and voice
messaging service called Google Talk) that you like, the "I see who
is on when I arrive" element, has been part of "instant messaging"
or "chat" programs since the beginning.
For our purposes, the beginning was free software. The service
called IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, predates the Web, is almost as
old as News, and just somewhat younger than the concept of email.
IRC is a complexly-federated service, with tens of thousands of
servers, dozens of relay networks, and an extremely large number of
different free software programs that provide access to its
protocols. It's more secure than the "instant messaging" systems
that copied from it, and has more features. Services like the chat
part of Google Talk, AOL Instant Messager, Skype Chat, and so on are
just degenerate, centralized versions of IRC.
But Google Talk is built on top of a much more sophisticated
messaging protocol, XMPP, which is free, and primarily implemented
in free software. XMPP is a "presence" protocol (there's the part
you like), which can transmit text, voice, video, or any other form
of bits in a many-to-many geometry, efficiently. The future of
Internet telephony isn't Skype, it's the Jingle standard, which is
an XMPP representation, to which Google is converging Google Talk.
FreedomBox contains a complete, secure XMPP messaging platform in
its 1.0 version. This is the easiest part of the task for us to
complete. Because we already have dozens of FOSS applications for
XMPP chat, including our multi-protocol chat client, Pidgin, which
can connect you to your "Gchat" friends and your AIM friends and
your IRC chatrooms and any other XMPP servers anywhere on the planet
you care to connect through, with conversation security, all at
once. So all we have to do is make them more secure on a network
that can be trusted to have only your actual, real friends on it no
matter who is trying to listen in between. So later this year you
will have a real, secure, effective system of text, voice and video
chat compatible with "Gchat" architecturally "built-in" to any
FreedomBox computer.
That's the good news. The bad news is that you didn't know any of
this, though a few hours with the Wikipedia would have done wonders
in carrying you from "Gchat" all the way to FreedomBox. I think the
next revision has to take a little more account of the factual
context.
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