26 september 2023
What is digitalization, really?
My father is a plumber. He started in that line of work in his early teens, went to a two-year high school program for formal education in the trade and then he continued in that line of work. Connectivity and digitalization were not part of his early life. Computers were not part of his early life. But tinkering with technology always was: cars, electronics, music and audio equipment, household appliances and so on. Thus, when computers started entering the small offices and homes of our home country in the 80s and 90s, his mind was wide open to the possibilities. Using BASIC, he wrote a small application for indexing and keeping track of the keys to the locations where his employer was doing plumbing work. He made a small website to document company events such as barbecue parties and softball tournaments. He used Windows/Total Commander to connect to FTP servers hosted by his friends. He and his bandmates hosted a phpBB forum for staying in touch with booking agents, bar owners, fans, freelance sound engineers and the likes.
When I think of digitalization, I think of my dad and his willingness to put in a little bit of effort to reap the benefits of digital technology on his own terms. A digitalization where the user is not helplessly dependant on a specific technology or product, but in control and able to make choices and where abstaining is always an option. Sadly, this is not the digitalization I see today.
A few weeks ago, I took the car to work. I usually go by train. After parking my car, I went up to the sign showing which of the many parking apps this particular spot used for handling payments. Using my de-Googled Android phone, I installed "Greenwashed ParkApp co." from a third-party store and opened it only to be met by the "Google Play services not supported by your devices" salute. But even if I'd had Google Play services installed, I would still need to be logged in with a Google account. Wait, what? I need a Google account to park my car at work? MicroG aside, what the hell kind of digitalization is that? Somewhere between my dad and his bandmates hosting their own webapp and me having to sign in to Google to park my car at work, something went wrong. Instead of building our digitalized society to our own liking, we are renting it. It is not really ours, not really something we can pride ourselves with.
Luckily, there was still an old parking meter nearby, so I used that instead.
Tags
#ownwritings, #selfhosting, #digitalization, #theweb, #crappytech