Stephen Downes

Ton Zijlstra asks, "Why doesn't tech usually focus on me using it for my communities as is, and rather present itself as having me join a made up community whose raison d'etre is exploiting our attention for profit?" It's a good question, and some important considerations follow. "'Scaling does not scale' said Aza Raskin in his Techfestival keynote, and that resonates." Existing communities don't need to scale; "they're fine as they are." So, "don't seek to scale your tech, seek to let your tech reinforce societal scaling, our overlapping communities, our cultures. Let your tech be scaffolding for a richer expression of society." Exactly.