Larry Downes recently wrote in Forbes magazine here: http://blogs.forbes.com/larrydownes/2011/03/10/is-digital-utopianism-dead/ an article on Network Neutrality (NN.) His article is titled "Is Digital Utopianism Dead?"
My answer is quite simply “Yes!” However, when was it ever alive?? Just as in any other daydream of utopia, they simply do not exist and never will. We dream about them but should never kid ourselves into believing that they ever will or are even possible.
Mr. Downes compares the open non proprietary protocol, TCP/IP, used on the Internet with the business model followed by cable TV companies. Come on Mr. Downes! Who do you think you are kidding? The former is an advertising based financial model while the latter is a charge for use model that is not based on advertising. The cable TV content companies do not talk about monetizing content as Internet content providers do simply because they do not have to.
Does Mr. Downes forget that without the extensive FCC oversight of advertising based broadcast TV that advertising based models of the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS et al.) would not exist at all? The same applies to the free advertising based Internet. It would become a charge based model the same as cable TV. Who wants that?
Making the availability of information charge based contributes to the schism created by the digital divide where only the wealthy will have access to information and will seek to perpetuate their wealth and class while the poor will have no access and get poorer.
Mr. Downes article is clearly elitist and transparent. In the past Forbes has been a bit more subtle about manipulation of the middle and lower classes by the wealthy in our country. Too bad Mr. Downes opted for blatant intellectualism in the hopes that only the wealthy would understand it.
My answer is quite simply “Yes!” However, when was it ever alive?? Just as in any other daydream of utopia, they simply do not exist and never will. We dream about them but should never kid ourselves into believing that they ever will or are even possible.
Mr. Downes compares the open non proprietary protocol, TCP/IP, used on the Internet with the business model followed by cable TV companies. Come on Mr. Downes! Who do you think you are kidding? The former is an advertising based financial model while the latter is a charge for use model that is not based on advertising. The cable TV content companies do not talk about monetizing content as Internet content providers do simply because they do not have to.
Does Mr. Downes forget that without the extensive FCC oversight of advertising based broadcast TV that advertising based models of the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS et al.) would not exist at all? The same applies to the free advertising based Internet. It would become a charge based model the same as cable TV. Who wants that?
Making the availability of information charge based contributes to the schism created by the digital divide where only the wealthy will have access to information and will seek to perpetuate their wealth and class while the poor will have no access and get poorer.
Mr. Downes article is clearly elitist and transparent. In the past Forbes has been a bit more subtle about manipulation of the middle and lower classes by the wealthy in our country. Too bad Mr. Downes opted for blatant intellectualism in the hopes that only the wealthy would understand it.
No comments:
Post a Comment