Information. A broad word, yet a powerful and important one.  It is defined by Oxford as "what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things". Information technology, therefore, is the study of how systems interact with information. 

Broadly speaking, there are two things you can do with information: create it and move it. One ought to dive a bit deeper, though. General relativity aside, there are two ways through which you can move information: through space, and through time. In other words, we can (a) process information, (b) transfer information through space,  and (c) store information through time. 

Eyal Hertzog recently explained how these three information realms - processing, transferring, and storing -- have two important manifestations. First, they are chronological landmarks in our evolutionary history as a species. Second, they serve as areas in which the world of technology has gradually improved over the past 60 years or so. 

On the biology front, our ape ancestors could process information. That is what the brain is for. But, they could not transfer it anywhere near as efficiently as we do today, through the use of language. That is what made our hunter gatherer ancestors different from apes. They could -- roughly speaking -- communicate in a somewhat precise manor. Finally, the ability to store information in the form of writing is something relatively new, around 5000 years old. Written texts from 4000 years ago like parts of the Bible are still very much read today. 

So, keep in mind these three categories: process, transfer, store. Now, let us fast forward 4000 years to the world of computers, and see how these categories are connected. 

In the world of IT, the act of processing information can be divided into two elements: hardware and software. In the beginning, around the 1970s, there was quite a big monopoly around hardware. But in 1974 came the PC, and hardware was somewhat demonopolised. The same thing happened with software. There was great monopoly around infrastructure software. However, in the late 1990s, open source came, and this monopoly was disintegrated.  

Transferring information through space in relation to the world of data is related to networks. With networks, we also had monopolies such as AOL and Progidy. However --  you guessed it -- then came the internet, and the world of networks was largely demonopolised. 

Lastly, we can store information through time. In the world of IT, this relates to databases. Only when databases were invented, back in the 1950s and 60s, could institutions like governments move their heaps of data into the digital world. Just like open-source was a public software solution, and the internet was a public network solution, blockchains are a public database solution. Thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto, we have this alternative. It is that simple. 

The BBS Network is the first genuine application of blockchain technology to create a truly open and demonpolised social network. 

My mind was blown when I heard Eyal say this. It was as if he was teaching a course on the history of IT, in 2050. Blockchains demonopolising social media is not a matter of "if" -- it is only a matter of when, and how. 

As history has shown, monopolies fall. They do not benefit anyone other than the actual monopoly. 

Will BBS be the innovation that leads the way in this process? Time will tell. 

Let me know what you think, 

- Yoav