# Introduction

Escaping platforms is not easy to achieve, as the authors of this book found out when they started to look for a non-proprietary collaborative writing solution. It occurred to us that it would be particularly ironic to write about escaping platforms while using Google Docs as a our main device for four-hands writing. But we quickly realized that cloud-based devices allowing for real-time, simultaneous writing on a series of files (chapters) grouped within a folder and which are not Google, Dropbox, Quip, and so on... are not legion! Shared "pads" based on the open-source code of Etherpad are convenient for very small documents (we used one to write the outline of the book), but they don't allow for long paragraphs, comments, and version management. Moreover they don't handle multi-segmented documents (chapters). We renounced using GitHub (not synchronous enough for our needs) and considered using a wiki, but there again, free wiki farms meant for academic writing have virtually disappeared with Wikispaces.

We finally turned to the web-based service that offered the best compromise in terms of features (hackmd.io), but then, the first contact with the service was a sign-up page inviting us to use our Facebook, Google, Dropbox or even Twitter account to sign in! Only at the very bottom of that page could we see a discrete "sign-up" link letting us create an email-based account. That was to us yet another example of the ubiquitousness of platforms and of the many ways by which they keep us within their hold [empire?].

## From @Maxigas2017c

[Short IRC definition (longer one in Chapter )] **Internet Relay Chat is a very basic but very flexible protocol for real time written conversations.** It has been first implemented in 1988, one year before the oWrld Wide Web. IRC reached the height of its popularity as a general purpose social media during the first Gulf War and the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996). At this time it performed various functions that were later fulfilled by specialised programs and platforms, such as dating, following friends or file sharing. *As the population of the Internet grew and market consolidation set in on the turn of the millennium, IRC faded from the public view.*

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