Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Computer Files Are Going Extinct

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is part of the wider trend away from document-based resources and toward data, graph and algorithm. "Files are skeuomorphic," writes Simon Pitt. "That's a fancy word that just means they're a digital concept that mirrors a physical item." But there's no need for the digital concept to continue mirroring the physical item, especially when it means mirroring all the limitations of the format. This article is a nostalgic look back at files. "The file has been replaced with the platform, the service, the ecosystem. This is not to say that I'm proposing we lead an uprising against services. You can't halt progress by clogging the internet pipes. I say this to mourn the loss of the innocence we had before capitalism inevitably invaded the internet.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 22, 2024 6:11 p.m.

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