Michael Hauben once wrote: ----- What the Net Means to Me The Net means personal power in a world of little or no personal power for those other than on the top. (Those on top are called powerful because of money, but not because of thoughts or ideas.) The essence of the Net is Communication: personal commun- ication both between individual people, and between individuals and those in society who care (and do not care) to listen. The closest parallels I can think of are: - Samizdat Literature in Eastern Europe. - People's Presses - The Searchlight, Appeal to Reason, Penny Press, etc. - Citizen's Band Radio - Amateur or Ham radio. However the Net seems to have grown farther and to be more accessible than the above. The audience is larger, and continues to grow. Plus communication via the Net allows easier control over the information -- as it is digitized and can be stored, sorted, searched, replied to, and easily adapted to another format. The Net is the vehicle for distribution of people's ideas, thoughts and yearnings. No commercial service deals with the presentation of peoples' ideas. I do not need a computer to order flowers from FTD or clothes from the Gap. I need the Net to be able to voice my thoughts, artistic impressions, and opinions to the rest of the world. The world will then be a judge as to if they are worthy by either responding or ignoring my contribution. Throughout history (at least in the USA), there has been a phenomenon of the streetcorner soapbox. People would "stand up" and make a presentation of some beliefs or thoughts they have. There are very few soapboxes in our society today. The '70s and '80s wiped out public expression. The financial crisis substitued a growing sentiment of make your money or shut up. In the late '80s and early '90s, the Net has emerged as a forum for public expression and discussion. The Net is partially a development from those who were involved with the Civil Rights movement, anti-war struggles and free speech movements in the '60s. The personal computer was also a development by some of these same people. Somehow the social advances rise from the fact that people are communicating with other people to help them undermine the upper hand other institutions have. An example is people in California keeping tabs on gas station prices around the state using Netnews and exposing gougers. Another example is people publically reviewing music themselves -- rather than telling others," you should really go buy the latest issue of magazine 'X' (Rolling Stone, etc) as it has a great review." This is what I mean by people power -- people individually communicating to present their view on something rather than saying go get commercial entity X's view from place 'Y'. This is people contributing to other people to make a difference in people's lives. In addition, people have debated commercial companies' opposition to the selling of used CDs. This conversation is done in a grassroots way -- people are questioning the music industry's profit making grasp on the music out there. The industry definitely puts profit ahead of artistic merit, and people are not interested in the industry's profit making motive, but rather great music. The Net is allowing two new avenues not available to the average person before: 1) A way of having one's voice heard. 2) A way of organizing and questioning other people's experiences so as to have a better grip on a question or problem. Thus in some ways there is a regaining control of one's life from society. These are all reasons why I feel so passionately about 1) keeping the Net open to everyone, and having such connections being available publicly, and 2) Keeping the Net uncommercialized and unprivatized. Commercialism will lead to a growing emphasis on OTHER uses for the Net. As I said before, it is NOT important for me to be able to custom order my next outfit from the Gap or any other clothing store. Companies should develop their own networks if they wish to provide another avenue to sell their products. In addition, commercial companies will not have it in their interest to allow people to use the Net to realize their political self. Again let me reemphasize, when I say politics, I mean power over one's own life and surroundings. And this type of politics I would call democracy. http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/Net-Means-to-Me.pdf ---- Take care. Jay ========================================= Daniel Jung wrote: . . .personal assessment of what the internet means to him. . . . Thanks for any pointers!