The internet was a wide-open space, a new frontier.
For the first time, anyone could communicate electronically with anyone else—globally and essentially free of charge. Anyone was able to create a website or an online shop, which could be reached from anywhere in the world using a simple piece of software called a browser, without asking anyone else for permission. The control of information, opinion and commerce by governments—or big companies, for that matter—indeed appeared to be a thing of the past. “You have no sovereignty where we gather,” Mr Barlow wrote.
The Economist summarizes what’s ahead as firms carve up customers in order to price content and shape broadband.
Big companies are building their own digital territories.
Fifteen years after its first manifestation as a global, unifying network, it has entered its second phase: it appears to be balkanizing, torn apart by three separate, but related forces.
It is still too early to say that the internet has fragmented into ‘internets’, but there is a danger that it may splinter….
Here’s a project of Communications Workers of America:
The sooner we pass legislation, the sooner we can be sure everyone can reap the benefits of a fast and open internet. Take a moment to email your member of Congress with this easy-to-use tool, and do your part to bring broadband home.
http://action.cwa-union.org/action/speed-matters-broadband-home