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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?
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 16 2015, @08:06AM
The utopian aspect of Hippiedom is still here on the net. People involved in partisan disputes and culture wars tend to overlook just how much actual information is available on the internet that used to be miles and months away. Inter-library Loan, that was a thing not too long ago, and a very good thing since you could get material your local scholarly institution did not have a physical copy of. Some will say, yes, but how much of what if accessible on the internet is reliable? I would have to say, most of it. People putting information up for public perusal usually do not have ulterior motives, unless they are a) climate-change deniers, or b) wacko Christians or Mormons or Scientologists, of the Lizard People guy.. And cross checking actually works, as long as you have a healthy sense of scepticism. So on the whole, a net improvement!!! (Hey, a pun!)
So does any one remember the Whole Earth Catalog? Access to tools? Steward Brand, and a bunch of San Fransisco Hippies. Or before that, the Encyclopecia of Diderot? The Toledo School of Translators, the Library of Alexandria? We are all heirs to those who have gone before. We have nothing to fear, but those who would burn books, or in the modern equivalency, violate net neutrality.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Webweasel on Tuesday June 16 2015, @03:19PM
Hate to post something that is pretty much spam, but its relevant.
To backup your point I run/own this site: http://priyom.org [priyom.org]
The entire purpose is to put information in the public domain. I pay for it out of my own pocket, there are no adverts on it at all.
The site is run under creative commons, all the info we supply is check-able and verifiable. (If you own your own SW radio)
So much so that the NSA have used us as a source of info and link to our site in one of their for public publications.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956