In 2013 Jaron Lanier a computer scientist and musician wrote a book called Who Owns The Future.
The premise of the book is that the middle class is getting screwed by Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. by agreeing to give away their content and data for free. Lanier calls these companies Siren Servers alluding to the mythical siren that calls Ulysses to crash against the rocks and die.
- Google’s algorithm is based on user data
- Facebook’s value is based on user content and data provided in exchange for “likes"
- Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, iStock, Shutterstock would all be nothing without user generated content
- This phenomenon has created recession, income inequality, imperiled privacy and devastated the middle-class
As a solution, according to his Wikipedia page, he suggests a system where "two-way linking system that would point to the source of any piece of information, creating an economy of micropayments that compensates people for original material they post to the web."
Sound familiar?