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The Web We Lost — Anil Dash at XOXO
Curator’s Note
Goosebumps at 14:30. Anil Dash stands on stage at XOXO and delivers what might be the most important talk about the internet I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t just mourn the old web — he shows you exactly what we lost and why it matters.
This talk was recorded at the XOXO Festival in Portland, a gathering of independent creators who make things on the internet. Anil Dash takes the audience through a tour of the web as it was — a web of personal sites, open APIs, and genuine communities — and contrasts it with the locked-down, corporate web we have now.
The most powerful moment comes when he shows side-by-side comparisons of what social features used to look like versus what they look like now. Every feature that was once open is now closed. Every protocol that was once shared is now proprietary. Every garden that was once public is now walled.
It’s not a nostalgic talk. It’s a forensic one.