💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2022 › 202212 › 20221222-unofficial-space.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 16:27:15. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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My wife and I visited Chicago, IL earlier this month. We've been there many times before, but on this trip we spent almost all of our time in the Near North Side, in the heart of downtown Chicago. The area, containing upscale shopping on North Michigan Avenue and tourist attractions at Navy Pier, caters to an upper-class clientele: its shops are filled with manicured display windows and its sidewalks are meticulously cleaned.
Advertising space in this part of town is fought over fiercely, and as a result is expensive and strictly controlled. Most ads promote major shops and attractions: male models pose with cologne bottles, while penguins adorn signs for the aquarium. Nordstrom ads sit next to promotions for the Chicago Philharmonic. All are aimed at wealthy consumers wanting to lead affluent lifestyles.
Of course not everyone in Chicago is so well-off. The city has been hit hard by recent economic troubles, and poverty has noticeably increased, even compared to six months ago. Poor communities also have a desire to advertise, but they have no chance at setting up a storefront on a main drag or purchasing a marketing display on the riverfront.
While roaming the streets of the Near North Side, we noticed that almost every postal collection box was covered in stickers. Some promoted Soundcloud artists, some pushed political or social messages, some linked to independent blogs or podcasts, some seemed designed to elicit a laugh, and some displayed glyphs and phrases that were completely indecipherable to us. Most street signs had stickers affixed to their backsides, and some bus shelters and subway benches were similarly adorned.
In a city where so much of the commercial and social activity is carefully planned and tightly managed, disadvantaged communities are often left with precious few means to spread a message widely. Even placing a sticker in such a fashion is discouraged by many. But in the land of large corporate and government interests, the common man isn't often left with much choice.
I feel that small protocols like Gopher and Gemini are in a similar position, as are many other corners of the Internet that I frequent. Gopher in particular, once dominant in the nascent Web, has been deprecated in favor of more feature-rich (and easier to control) protocols. Major browsers have now removed compatibility entirely, leaving the community to build infrastructure for itself. While Gemini doesn't have as long of a history, the community that's built around it is just as viable as any other, but its adoption has been slow and segmented.
The similarities don't end there. Gopher and Gemini in themselves lack a means to push data to a user, while the mainline Internet is full of banner ads, prerolls injected into videos, marketing notifications, and all sorts of intrusive advertising. In the real world, large companies push their branding in TV commercials and radio spots, but a sticker placed on a trash can won't fill your mailbox with junk every week. You'll see it if you go to where it is, but it can't track or trace you. That forces underground messages to stand on their own merit--if the idea or the product is good, it'll gain traction, and nothing else will do the trick.
I enjoy seeing people take back autonomy and carve out small spaces for themselves. Too much of our daily activities are controlled by corporations and government. And despite modern society's dismissive classification as consumers, most people want to make something of their lives: they want to build, to create, and to make an impact. Open, unregulated, and welcoming communities are perfectly suited for just such opportunities.
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[Last updated: 2022-12-22]