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posted by janrinok on Tuesday June 16 2015, @04:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-what-we-expected-but-is-it-bad? dept.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/06/is-the-internet-a-failed-utopia/

LONDON—At Shoreditch Town Hall on Thursday, at an event hosted by Intelligence Squared and Vanity Fair, the longevous British broadcaster Jeremy Paxman of University Challenge fame asked the audience of few hundred: "Is the Internet a failed utopia?" He asked us to vote on the matter by raising our hands. About two-thirds of the audience disagreed with the statement, a fair few (including myself) were undecided, and only a smattering of people actually thought the Internet was a failed utopia.

It was then the turn of four panellists, in the style of an electoral hustings or stump speech, to change our minds. In the failed-utopia camp were Andrew Keen and Frank Pasquale; in the not-a-failed-utopia faction were Peter Barron and Beth Noveck. They took it in turns to deliver quite rousing speeches.

The naysayers obviously had the harder job from the outset—we were at an event that was specifically tailored for fans of the Internet, after all—but they did a good job of reminding us that the Internet, as it stands, is not the elysium that we were all promised at its inception. Keen warned us that, while we think the Internet is an idyllic plateau where everyone is on an even footing, where two guys in a garage can compete with the monolithic, infrastructure-owning giants, we're all deluding ourselves: just like the real world, the Internet is now ruled by big corporations.

The utopian speakers, Barron and Noveck, mostly focused on all of the cool things that wouldn't have been possible before the Internet and World Wide Web were created. Noveck, who was a driving force behind President Obama's Open Government Initiative, reminded us that, with a smartphone in your pocket, you have access to more information than the president of the United States did 25 years ago. Barron, who is a public affairs bod at Google, spoke about the equality of opportunity on the Internet—and of course, about all the free services that we get to enjoy.

What does SN think?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:46AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:46AM (#196758)

    the internet is a battlefield. There's nothing utopian about a warzone... I remember this painting i saw somewhere, its was titled "welcome to LA" or something... a canvas divided in 4 parts, each with a different angry face, as seen from below like you were lying on the ground and they looked down at you... a cop, a hispanic, a black man and some suit i think... Every time someone mentions state of the net, i think of that picture.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @08:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @08:00AM (#196778)
    Not quite, but I think this is pretty close: http://www.kchronicles.com/uploaded_images/clrla-794247.jpg [kchronicles.com]
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday June 16 2015, @10:08AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 16 2015, @10:08AM (#196803) Homepage Journal

    I don't know that it depicted LA exactly but it was owned by an LA art collector, and the father of a close friend.

    The art collector's home barely had anywhere to stand let alone sit because it was packed solid with oil paintings. I would not be surprised were that man's collection worth more than Bill Gates so I don't want to tell you where to find his house, M'Kay?

    There was only one painting hung on a wall, it was quite large perhaps seven by eight feet. It was right out of Film Noir.

    In the background is a brick wall, below is a sidewalk. A motorcycle cop stands with his back to the viewer, looking down. To one side a fedora-wearing detective wearing a shabby brown suit is quietly interviewing a young woman, a notebad in one hand and a pencil in the other.

    On the ground at the cop's feet is a body covered with a sheet.

    If I ever somehow earn a lot of money I am going to offer to buy that painting but I expect the owner will not want to part with it.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]