Studying the reasons why Hive doesn't get much attention on Web 2.0 platforms and the wider media is pretty interesting. There's a long list of them, which seem to point to the way that web 2.0 'influencers' generally aren't interested in helping other people, they are only interested in their own personal power. Centralised websites seem to attract people who think in a centralised way and so either don't understand or don't want to understand why decentralisation is so necessary. Centralisation is a trap that seems to solve problems, but which creates it's own problems in the process which are likely to affect those further down the 'food chain' from the early adopters first - so the 'big names' and gatekeepers lack incentive to change anything.
This problem can happen in decentralised systems too, but since decentralisation allows for others who arrive later on to build power and to even fork completely, the problem decreases as decentralisation increases.
We need to recognise that there is a powerful force within centralised systems that wants to keep the world centralised, we can just call this the 'centralising imperative' - it is the same force that operated to create and maintain the slave plantations and any other evil and exploitative structure of people.
Therefore, efforts to market and grow Hive have to include strategy to overcome this. Ultimately, this means that while it is ok to market on Web 2.0 sites, they should never be considered a top priority or a reliable one. It is far more productive to host physical events where silicon valley agents cannot interrupt the flow of information than to invest a lot of time into Web 2.0 sites. However, there is an obvious disconnect here between the physical world and the digital world that is also a challenge. People are separated by physical space and so their capacity for physical marketing is hampered here too.
We need ways to market and network digitally that do not rely on Web 2.0. I can think of a few ways to do this and I will be putting together a new plan and strategy in the coming weeks.
I understand the centralization imperative. We can agree that normally people are centralize-minded, it's probably because we're used to central entity calling the shots, and we're used to everything around us being centralized, including our systems. But at one point in time, people who breaks out of this loop has a role to play in helping others realize that they've got to break out of this loop as well. Even if the channels we need to do this are centralized, but we have to keep trying I guess.
You mentioned holding physical events, this Ghana project is one of them, and I mentioned in this post that this event is not bringing anything crucial because the organizers are targeting the wrong audience.
Basically, we're in a crossroad and doing it right comes as a cost I guess, but what do we do?
Anyway, I'll be looking forward to this because I'm of the opinion that it's everyone's duty to make hive great. Thanks for that detailed comment.
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