Michael Peter Edson's ignite talk at the MCN 2019 conference critiques the current state of the internet, highlighting the negative impact of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube on society and democracy. He argues for a collective effort to redefine the web, emphasizing the need for decency, civic responsibility, and community values over profit. Edson calls for urgent action to create a web that reflects the common good and supports global connectivity without exploitation.

1. The Web We Want
Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network
2019 conference (MCN 2019)
Michael Peter Edson
Annotated Script
Blog post with context and link to video here:
https://www.usingdata.com/usingdata/2019/11/5/the-web-we-want

2. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
2
1.
Image: probably “Machines Of Loving Grace Cat GIF By Faith Holland” https://giphy.com/gifs/26tPgbUUcfS5IWiTm
Hey I’m Mike; Cheers! Tonight I’m in absentia.
Talking to you across a digital connection.
Broadcasting from my trusty cyber station,
My code, copper, glass, and silicon creation.
2.
Images: https://media.giphy.com/media/dwmNhd5H7YAz6/giphy.gif, https://media.giphy.com/media/3FPFMMeIXpeg0/giphy.gif,
https://images.app.goo.gl/seA1eHCaTq5CQcKU7
Yeah I love the web — and it’s our baby.
And many-of-us are insider spiders that can ride her, maybe.
Or are we flies that come around … get stuck and eaten?
That web’s a sticky place now, and that smilin’ spider we be greetin.

3. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
3
3.
Images: https://media.giphy.com/media/p3Wl6y9bTgyYw/giphy.gif, https://images.app.goo.gl/9ed2tj5jFtRuTSuLA,
https://gfycat.com/illustriousunequaledamericantoad
What am I talkinabout? Well you may know me, Willis1
.
May know the things I care about I think will kill us.
May know the scope, scale, and speed-lovin man I am.
May know the green-eggs-and-ham lovin Sam-I-am2
.
4.
Image: https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12368634/this-is-fine-dog-meme-update-sequel-kc-green
I look out my windows and I see a shit-show.
If you log-in, or blogging with your noggin there’s a quid-pro-quo.
So let me take you through the categoric history.
To sweep the evils of these platforms to the dustbin of our history.

4. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
4
5.
Images: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram logos via Google Image search; https://images.app.goo.gl/7MjyhmupqgFxXu1P7, Adventure
Time https://images.app.goo.gl/AG37Mvy9QfDf58Vo7
Facebook, Insta, YouTube, and Twitter.
I loved them, but these days I’d use them for kitty litter.
Flush them right down the pot — yeah, I’m pretty bitter.
They stealin’ from us like a Ben Franklin counterfeiter3
.
6.
Image: A Genocide Incited on Facebook With Posts From Myanmar’s Military. By Paul Mozur. New York Times. 15 October 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html
Facebook? It aided a genocide. A genocide. A genocide.
Facebook? It aided a genocide.
Yeah, they did that, and people died.

5. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
5
7.
Images: Facebook Releases Statement in Defense of Its Content Moderation Policies. By Zia Muhammad. Digital Information World. Wednesday,
January 2, 2019. https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/facebook-response-nyt-content-review-facts.html;
https://media.giphy.com/media/XH9tzHRGQmLSFGP6E8/giphy.gif, Scott Pilgrim “But it’s haaard”
https://images.app.goo.gl/BPNDq2UerCFXxDAH7
‘But we’re too big to mod-er-ate on-line activity.’
That’s a laugh! Facebook you could have the proclivity
To care about people and values and civility,
And redirect some of your vaunted corporate creativity
8.
Images: https://www.ravelry.com/content/no-trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ValJMOpt7s
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj4wkq/one-of-the-oldest-online-rpg-communities-banned-pro-trump-speech;
https://twitter.com/yehudi_eyif/status/1145263347568467969; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2018/04/12/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-faces-another-request-to-testify-in-europe/
To make common sense solutions that work for all humanity.
Hate is not a fair choice ‘tween free speech, profit, and inanity.
Grow a spine and learn from those who’ve learned to love their community.
Weave a web of love and trust like RPG and Ravelry4
.

6. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
6
9.
Images: https://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2019/06/05/64558/down-the-rabbit-hole-the-dark-side-of-youtube-s-au/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/youtube-politics-radical.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/world/americas/youtube-pedophiles.html
YouTube, oh, don’t get me started.
I love this platform but then they departed
The land of common, objective civic decency,
When they give aid and comfort those who spread conspiracy
10.
Images: https://mashable.com/article/amnesty-study-twitter-abuse-women/
Twitter, hell, it’s a travesty,
How harassment and abuse is right there for all to see.
It’s not convenient to care when your mistress is a business model,
That makes you into every troll and dictator’s mollycoddle.

7. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
7
11.
Images: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/google-silicon-valley-nsa-spying/
https://tenor.com/wbi6.gif, https://gfycat.com/accomplishedpinkekaltadeta
Google, aw, where to start?
They’ve turned exploitation of privacy into an art.
Microtargeting, tracking, and ruthless data aggregation,
Reduce life-changing choices to an algorithmic calculation,
12.
Images: https://media.giphy.com/media/zhJR6HbK4fthC/giphy.gif, https://media.giphy.com/media/aRK67eTsU5UqY/giphy.gif
Blurring our lives into a smear of ruthless averages.
When they work they work but when they don’t who pays the damages?
Not people like me, white, straight, schooled, and privileged.
The grievous harm they cause to the powerless and poor can be unlimited5
.

8. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
8
13.
Images: http://reactiongifs.com/?p=12426, https://media.giphy.com/media/NS7gPxeumewkWDOIxi/giphy.gif
So don’t tell me it don’t affect you.
Don’t affect those you met and those who beget you.
“Come into my parlor”6
say we spiders to the flies outside.
Hey, everybody goes there, why not? Don’t worry ‘bout the sticky side.
14.
Images: https://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/bow/1840s-gif-party-at-tate-britain/
I think it’s a matter of owning up to consequence.
We all ask our global family to play here, and at great expense,
We burnish the street cred of dot coms with our edifice,
And risk harm to our community while we’re being generous.

9. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
9
15.
Images: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-11-29/how-to-tame-google-facebook-amazon-and-apple,
https://gfycat.com/unselfishannualbird
Microsoft, Apple, and the Amazon crew.
ISP’s and the mobile’s are part of this too.
They claim public good, civic virtue, in their soundbites,
But when push comes to shove will they shove the Benjamins7
or human rights?
16.
Images: https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files, https://imgur.com/gallery/8hq4K/comment/1304233321,
https://gfycat.com/hoarsebriefgermanspitz-mark-zuckerberg-social-network-social-media-art
Oh bruh and sis, I almost forgot.
Elections and fake news are what we begot.
Remember that thing with Cambridge Analytica?
Well how’ you feelin’ about the current situation politica’?

10. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
10
17.
Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greta_Thunberg_4.jpg
http://www.encorepub.com/slow-down/
https://giphy.com/gifs/climate-change-visualization-global-warming-hPovBcQ3c1g9W, and Greta Thunberg’s speech to Davos, 2019, transcript
in The Guardian, “'Our house is on fire': Greta Thunberg, 16, urges leaders to act on climate”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate
Not so good? Huh — well me neither.
Catastrophic atmospheric carbon’s rising in the ether,
And just when we all must be connected, fast, and democratic,
The web we need is rotting, unacceptable-ly problematic.
18.
Image: World Wide Web Quartz GIF by Marcie LaCerte https://media.giphy.com/media/h1uOLxRxyYoKnmQkIy/giphy.gif
Are we going to let 7 billion people live and love on a Web that’s autocratic?
Where the values of decency and common good make the dot-com’s panic?
Where the captains of Silicon Valley are running manic?
Piloting our commons to an iceberg like their own Titanic?

11. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
11
19.
Images: https://giphy.com/gifs/washington-dc-womens-march-l3q2X84r5RIxxNTKo, https://www.wnyc.org/story/96229-land-your-land/,
https://media.giphy.com/media/26AHG5KGFxSkUWw1i/giphy.gif
To transcend greed. Avarice. The fecklessness of feckless pricks,
We’re going to have to work as one, renegotiate some politics.
Boycott, cajole, write those letters band together,
Take a stand, take a risk, take the streets hell bent for leather.
20.
Image: probably “Machines Of Loving Grace Cat GIF By Faith Holland” https://giphy.com/gifs/26tPgbUUcfS5IWiTm
This heart, these beats from this spider-web practitioner.
This time, these rhymes bustin’ from this long-distance exhibitioner
This urgency this planet this community can get get it done.
The web we want’s the dream we got if we spin our silk together, connected and strong.

12. Annotated script for The Web We Want, an Ignite talk for the Museum Computer Network 2019 conference
(MCN 2019). Michael Peter Edson.
12
Notes:
1
“What you talkin’ ‘bout Willis?”, https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/whatcha-talkin-bout-
willis
2
Green Eggs and Ham, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Eggs_and_Ham
3
“Ben Franklin counterfeiter…”, Ben Franklin is the face on the US $100 bill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one_hundred-dollar_bill
4
The community sites for RPG and Ravelry (for role playing games and fiber arts, respectively)
banned pro-Trump speech from their platforms. See https://www.ravelry.com/content/no-
trump and https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj4wkq/one-of-the-oldest-online-rpg-
communities-banned-pro-trump-speech.
5
See blog post here, with over 30 links to articles about the “dark side” of 3rd
party social media
platforms, “Society is more than a bazaar”,
https://www.usingdata.com/usingdata/2019/11/25/society-is-more-than-a-bazaar-links-on-
social-media
6
From “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt, 1829,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spider_and_the_Fly_(poem)
7
“Benjamins”, as in the Ben Franklin $100 bill,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one_hundred-dollar_bill