Stephen Downes

"Online used to be a place you could leave," writes Wira Indra Kusuma. "We designed the exit out of it because an exit reads as a leak." But without that exit, we can never really log off and the online world becomes just another layer of the real world, one we can never escape. "We used to be able to log off because someone left the door open. Now, if people are still allowed a moment to stop, we are the ones who have to put the door there. And we had better know why it is worth putting back, before we forget it was ever there without anyone having to ask." I'm sure this all appeals to this line of reasoning, which is why I'm passing it along, but my own response is ... meh. I want the online world to remember - I want my bank account balance to persist, I want my credentials to continue to be recognized, I want the power to stay on and email to keep coming to the right address. Yes, it used to be the case that we couldn't count on any of that, but today saying "I want an exit" is like saying "I want to leave society".