holy crap. you know, just when i think maybe we’ve progressed, something like this reminds me it simply never changes.
read on… please.
a little over ten years ago, i was part of a rather pointed effort to communicate that the internet is a marvelous evolution of communication and connectedness in the world. that the ignorance and short-sightedness of some could very easily and very thoroughly smother it before it could even approximate its amazing potential as a world wide link between all peoples, regardless ideology or any of the things that so often divide us.
that it could, quite literally, be a force of long-term, positive change simply by allowing people to communicate who otherwise would not be able to do so. freely. as they will. without the restriction, control, or coercion of the many, varied collectives that seek so often to control things into death.
well. here we are, more than ten years later, and it would seem a good bit of what we fought so hard for has been slowly and rather cleverly flanked by corporate collectives and the urge to manage things not by educating and sharing understanding, but by fostering ignorance and feeding fear. status quo, i suppose.
just look at these harrowing examples of what is now happening.
the topic is ‘net neutrality’ and, at core, it is the existing set of laws and policies that prevent Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.
now take a moment and really think about that, and what it actually means. more importantly, take a moment and think about what kind of place the internet would be if what you could access were being controlled — the biggest and most obvious thing being that things your provider doesn’t like or doesn’t think you should be allowed to see would deliberately load more slowly (OR NOT AT ALL — they could be blocked).
here’s the problem — the federal trade commission has jeopardized net neutrality as a result of a decision in 2005. and all those corporate collectives see that opening and are spending every dollar they can and lobbying the heck out of congress and the senate to try and see it overturned.
as in done away with, folks.
the argument to date has been that they need to make more money for the service they are providing. also that they don’t like having to compete with local providers. they want all that yummy pie for themselves, of course.
they want to be able to force smaller players out of the market by insuring they can never provide the same speed or reliability.
they want to be able to filter and block what you can or cannot see based upon their own, corporate interests. they do not want you to know, let alone have a say in it.
if you’ve been active in technology at all in life, or if you’ve been around since before most people even know what ‘an internet’ was, then you likely remember how most times, all these kinds of folks needed to do to cow everyone into doing it their way was float enough stories about the ‘evil, evil internet’. they regularly counted on the general ignorance of the public to get their way. scare them enough and you can manage most anything, right?
i had thought perhaps we were far enough along and people were familiar enough with technology as a good thing that this kind of happening would be much less likely.
sadly, it turns out not only is it still likely, it’s once again slobbering at the door like a big, bad wolf that simply will not go away.
it is an unfortunate truth that most people are far too busy with their lives and the various distractions provided by the world to ever really bother educating themselves or really taking the time to understand how some of these things roundly, soundly cut off positive progress at the knees.
please… do not be one of those folks. this is something important, something that will affect and change what kind of internet your children and their children will experience. this issue will greatly impact whether or not the internet is allowed to grow and thrive as a world community of information or if it is turned into yet another venue where only the corporations have any control or choice.
while a good bit of this matter is happening in the united states, it is far from a singular countries concern. if you’re reading this from the UK, understand this has the potential to greatly impact you as well. if you’re reading this from anywhere else, please consider that this technology began here and reached you because of net neutrality. how long do you think it will last as a medium of unbiased, free information if corporate control is allowed reign?
please. educate yourself. get involved. make yourself heard. here is a good place to start:
http://www.savetheinternet.com
you can immediately send a letter to your congressmen and senators simply by filling out a form. here’s the link, it takes less than a minute. please consider doing so:
automated congressman/senator letter form
for my part, you’ll note a new banner and link in the right sidebar. i encourage you to add one to your site, to talk about this with your friends, both online and offline, and to do what you can in your immediate sphere of daily experience to let as many people as possible know what is happening.
also, please consider contacting your representatives in congress AND the senate and let them know in no uncertain terms that you like the internet as it is… and they should practice forethought before gutting a foundational aspect of globally enabled communications and information distribution.