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Eleven Years and Counting...
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 Eleven Years and Counting... Wikipedia posts the following: The Internet, or simply the Net, is the worldwide, publicly accessible system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It consists of millions of smaller business, academic, domestic, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web. Contrary to some common usage, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous: the Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections etc.; the Web is a collection of interconnected documents, linked by hyperlinks and URLs, and is accessible using the Internet. The Internet also provides many other services including e-mail, file sharing and others. Doc Searls posted Tuesday. May 30, 2006 We've been trying for 11+ years to explain what the Net is. And it hasn't worked. Yet. But ask anybody to define any utility or public infrastructure -- road system, phone system, cable system, railroad system, electrical system, sewage system, water system, air traffic control system -- and you'll get pretty much the same answers from everybody. They can define those things, and not the Net, because the Net is not a system. It's ... something else. Right now the carriers are lobbying hard at the state level to screw over the counties and municipalities. Some citizens are fighting back. Check out the Lafayette (LA) Pro Fiber blog, for one example: If we want to play hardball against the carriers, we need to join these citizen journalists, and expose what they're doing at the state level. To do that, we should take our campaign to the local and regional newspapers, which don't like the cable and phone companies, either. Or the TV stations. This wouldn't be hard. Just gather your facts, call your local muckracking reporters, and turn them loose. If we don't want to play hardball, we need a whole 'nuther strategy. One that starts with defining the Net in terms other than carrier-owned pipes. (Which is the default right now -- even for many of us on the pro-Neutrality side of things.) ------------------------o0o------------------ Doc, you, of course, heard the one about Give 'Em Hell, Harry (Truman, not Reid) and the truth. Don't you think that eleven years of trying to explain the Internet in your terms, with little success, says something about your version. Particularly when Wikipedia does the job so well. Besides, this whole issue of Net Neutrality is nothing more than the same old Corporate greed in action. It's kind of difficult to blame corporations for pushing the envelope after seeing how easy Microsoft bought their way out of trouble. And, BTW, your support for Microsoft doesn't help. OTOH, I support your recommendation about playing hardball with the carriers -- it's the only way to go. Doug Skoglund
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