This idea will need a lot of brainstorming, but it was discussed earlier on SocialHub. One of our members, Andrew Mackie, has spent a long time analysing the problem with aggregators and came up with different, unique view of the problems they pose to society. He was also investigating possible solutions.

Both problem analysis (recommended read) and solution thoughts are documented at Offerbots. The solution-side however needs more work. It needs … [ 🥁 drumroll ] … Fediverse!

Excerpt from Offerbots landing page:

The Problem

Our economy, society and information are controlled, distorted and taken by aggregators (such as Google, Amazon and Facebook):

Learn about the problem (which is deeper than you might think).

The Solution

We need offerbots – personal tools for making, receiving and processing offers (our invitations to trade, interact socially and share information with each other):

Learn about the solution.

And … [ 🥁 drumroll ] … ActivityStreams defines the Offer activity type:

{
  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
  "summary": "Sally offered 50% off to Lewis",
  "type": "Offer",
  "actor": {
    "type": "Person",
    "name": "Sally"
  },
  "object": {
    "type": "http://www.types.example/ProductOffer",
    "name": "50% Off!"
  },
  "target": {
    "type": "Person",
    "name": "Lewis"
  }
}