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Re: Sunday, February 26, 2006
Jack Rickard, former editor and publisher of Boardwatch Magazine, had it right when he described the then-nascent Internet, coupled with the Personal Computer as nothing more or less than "Democracy in a box." As the 1918 song used to bemoan, "How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm, (after they've seen Paree?)" This is what repressive governments fear, and this is the Hammer of Democracy that could be used to sell government support of the Internet as the 'location' you describe - if even nominal democracies and republics were not now also repressive. The one thing all repressive societies fear - the government and the people alike - is free access to information. The Internet is not a 'place', it is a weapon. When we who ran BBS' in the 1980's experienced, one day we had a disparate group of islands of information, straining and pushing to be connected, via FidoNET and AlterNET and FishNET, for God's sake, and massive corporate systems like Compuserve and AOL and Prodigy deliberating how they could enable some limited connections to the Internet for purposes of email communications between services, and as Jack pointed out, and then the next day someone snuck into the wiring closet and hooked it all up while we weren't looking. Since that time, the Internet has alternately been seen as a boon or a threat to various industries and governments, sometimes both at the same time. Each time people think they've finally gotten a handle on this 'Internet' thing, it sprouts new tendrils and heads off in yet another direction. Is it web pages and e-commerce? Oh, wait, it is news and music feeds and business portals. Whoops, it is citizen journalism and blogerati. Home to industrial espianage and government-sponsored terrorism and hacking. It is underlying infrastructure to interconnect all services, such as telephony and television and radio. And so on. Like the blind men examining the elephant by laying their hands on various parts of it, everyone who touches the Internet comes away with a different perception of what it is, framed by their perceptions and life experiences, as well as their fears and expectations. The best response to any threat to the Internet is the same as it has always been. Do nothing. The Internet is not about to be regulated, or to have the plug pulled, nor is it going to take over the world. It has become as ubiquitous as having a phone or a TV in one's home (in most parts of the world, that is), and that trend will only continue. The politicians will continue to make noise, which is what they do. Quo vadis? Onward, ever onward. Aut viam inveniam aut faciam! Semper Fidelis, Wigwam Jones, former SysOp, The Psyclone BBS - 1985-1991
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