Another Reason to be Bullish About App.net
Horace Dediu from an interview posted this morning (emphasis added):
An internet business is the arbitrageur who takes advantage of the inability of each market to price the other. History shows that arbitrage markets tend not be stable as information begins to leak across markets. Therefore what would blow the internet up is if consumers could become wiser about what they are giving up and advertisers would become wiser about aggregating consumer data. I imagine a system where each individual would allow bids on their consumption and a market mechanism where bidders competed for that data. This of course depends on users taking control and ownership of their own data.
[…]
It would create a new era which will have political dimensions. I imagine we’ll need an internet citizen’s bill of rights or some such movement which will reset expectations. Economically, could bode well for those who position themselves as protectors of the individuals and be a crisis for those who take advantage of consumer ignorance.
Note that this would be a structural difference, not a difference of technological capability. In other words, Facebook, Twitter, and Google could not copy it without destroying their established businesses. Isaac would have to sacrifice Abraham.