On 12/26/2017 12:27 PM, BM-2cXCAVedtJwvdVXg9HeMPZp8k5UAakzTMs@bitmessage.ch wrote:
It seems that the Internet is no longer an academic thing and compared to popular culture online, the research community becomes almost invisible and finally led to the collapse of many of them.
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Where are all the hackers, developers, cryptographers, activists, researchers, etc gone?
Nowhere and Everywhere. Seek and ye shall find, but probably not what you expect to find: One can never step into the same river twice. The Internet actually has produced changes in human organization and, big surprise, it does so first among those who are most immersed in its technological and strategic/tactical aspects. We now have a fluid global community, where distinct forums, projects, etc. pop up, serve their ad hoc purposes, then change radically and/or or just dry up and blow away. Sometimes an accessible archive of Very Useful Bits will be left behind, sometimes not.
It seems that the Internet is no longer an academic thing and compared to popular culture online, the research community becomes almost invisible and finally led to the collapse of many of them.
No Duh and Yes Duh: The Internet stopped being an 'academic communiy' in every practical sense with the advent of AOL. But this did not cause research communities to collapse: See above. Sometimes they work themselves out of a job, or become obsolete when their subject matter loses relevance. On the darker side, such communities may fall prey to political forces hostile to their nominal missions, especially when people make the transition from noncommercial virtual interactions to business enterprises in meatspace: Check the rise and fall of EFF's TOR Project for a fascinating case study. Curious 3rd parties are not supposed to find their way into technical forums and the like, not easily that is, because look up the phrase Eternal September. But like minded clever people will find each other, for better or worse. "Somewhere there are people just like you. Go there." - Jerry Pournelle :o)