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Commercialization Of The Internet
Anonymous Coward writes "For those anti-corporate tech-heads out there, Excite is running an article about how companies are taking over the net through the use of the courts, trademarks and deep pockets.
From the article, 'Big corporations have a significant and growing presence on the Internet. In March, just 14 companies controlled 60 percent of users' online time, down from 110 companies two years earlier, Jupiter Media Metrix found.'
A final thought from the article,
'This is the last remaining communications medium that allows the small person to participate,' said Barbara Simons, past president of the Association for Computing Machinery. 'To lose that would be a great tragedy.'"
For example, Amazon as a retailer has to compete with every other bookshop on the onternet - this competition is good, and keeps prices down. Low proces allow poorer people to buy. The digital nature of amazon means that anyone can work for it anywhere in the world (excluding the manual work in the warehouses). This is a democratic, meritocratic process.
As for the effect on the internet itself, well, look at all the services available - hotmail, msn, aol, yahoo, cnn, bbc, these are the bread and butter of the internet.
But most importantly, the Internet prior to commercialisation was an ivory tower. It was exclusive and exclusing. It has been the commercial companies that have pushed it out into the mainstream and made it a resource accessible by everyone - much to the chagrin of the Internet 'old timers', who still contemptiously sneer at AOLers and such 'low life'.
Moaning about commercialisation of the internet is just a front for elitist snobbery, for wanting the old, university and academic dominated internet back, for people who want to exclude the majority.
This hypocrisy must not be tolerated.
You may be annoyed that the sort of internet *you* like is no longer mainstream, and is relegated to dusty old newsgroups and places like slashdot, but that's just tough; don't try and exclude the majority under the pretense of 'stopping commercialism', the only great force of equality known to man, Capitalism.
I have been in the Digirati for 15 years, but as an artiste, not a programmer or sysadmin, and it has always dismayed me how the mainstream 'hacker' opinion is so exclusionary, and hypocritical.
Now that this culture is finally a tiny majority on the internet, it seems to view itself as persecuted by commercialism, which (in a small sense), it is, as it has been sidelined.
But creating this anticommercial, anticapitalist, antiequality and antiegalitarean agenda will only lead to tears.
Wake up!
What's very interesting is many of these companies own the means to connect to the Internet
and obtained that exclusive ownership through rather nefarious means. A former Southworstern Bell friend used to brag about how the entire provisioning platform for CLEC/DSL providers to issue orders thru SWBell was a single fax machine (set on the slowest receive speed, and frequently out of paper for days).
No phone orders. No electronic order system. No email requests. One crummy fax machine that was usually down. "Golly Mrs. Jones, I can't understand why your CLEC DSL provider can't get you service. Southworstern Bell would gladly get it for you in a few days if you'd switch your order!"
On my home turf, USWorst beat the colocation orders by stuffing hundreds of desk job folks into recently relocated quarters inside the central office. Imagine freezing your butt off next to a 5ESS switch just so some higher up exec can keep the CLECs out of town. "Sorry, no space left in the central office... wish we could help ya!"
Top that off with their hit squad that serviced cities like Minneapolis, Des Moines, Omaha, etc. that "oopsed" on ISP dedicated lines. "Gosh, did you say that T1 you've been runnin was supposed to be ESF/B8ZS? Golly... looks like it's AMI/D4 now. Guess you'll have to reorder your uplink connection... should be about 35 days by the time we get to fixin it. I could flip the little switch on the CSU/DSU, but hey, I'd be breakin the rules!" (Apparently payola is expected or else it's 'company policy' for you)
I had everything from lost orders (more than 50%), competitive poaching (request a quote to a customer location and discover USWorst sales people getting the lead passed on), intentional interference with hunt groups (killing hunt #2 out of 200+ lines), fraudulant billing putting companies from other states onto my bill (and being told if I didn't pay it by 5 PM, I'd be shut down), etc.
Only the city's top law firm, vicious attorneys and nonstop publicity about their illegal aggression kept us above water. Our competitors who couldn't afford $50K/month for legal fees to combat the LEC? They didn't last long at all.
Combine that with oversight from our elected officials like Louisiana's Tauzin (an EFF watchlist critter and highly effective open Internet killer), and there should be no surprise. We've demanded a spam-favoring Baby Bell monopoly Internet through our votes.
Don't like it? Don't elect this funny speakin' Bell lacky crap.
*scoove*
Comment removed based on user account deletion
One does not "freeze ones butt off" inside a central office, unless one happens to be sitting right on top of the AC vent.
Even then, you can take a stroll among the line cards and get the nice and toasty feeling no matter where they have the AC set.
A new kind of meat designed to appeal to vegetarians.
Sorry, but media concentration is still a reality and it is getting worse, despite the blooming of many alternatives. I agree that Chomksy and other Left media critics are wrong when they apply this criticism to the Internet, but when it comes to newspapers, radio, and TV, there are only a few companies that own everything. Radio is the worst of the bunch, with 3 corporations owning pretty much all of the airwaves.
I'm also sorry that you find Chomsky to be a crackpot. You are entitled to you ignorant opinion, but Chomsky is well respected around the world. He appears on TV stations in other countries, yet is shut completely off of American TV.
This story about a few corporations controlling the Internet is just another PR stunt from Jupiter Research. Cyber-pundits have been proclaiming the takeover of the Internet by corporations for years--if anything, the situation has improved with the shakeout of all the crappy dot-coms.
The Jupiter Research survey is also fundamentally dishonest: not every surfer going to the "popular websites" is going TO that website. More often than not, they are seeking content created by people whose content is hosted on that website. Corporations like Yahoo have tried to censor and discourage controversial content (like the adult communities) with the result that people go elsewhere.
I have found many communications mediums that allow the small person to be active.
1. Tin-Can to Tin-Can, AKA PPPOTC
2. Copy machine to street corner
3. Projection on laser tracked white balloon
4. Soap Box
5. Spray paint on large wall
6. RFC 2549
7. Bumper sticker
I could come up with others but that's just what I found on the top of my head.
Granted numbers 2, 3, 5, & 7 allow for only one way data transmission but that still leaves 3 bi-directional methods for use by the little people.
Ascii artist &
My, what well thought out, enlightening discussion....
Why?
Just shoot all the lawyers!
The next thing you know there will be .com domains and shit, then there will be a http://www.joltcola.com commercial cola website, then http://www.sex.com throbbing, pulsating porn sites, then people will be selling softwear! ohmygawd! or they will be selling cars and trucks and guns!!! then it will be drugs of all sorts!!! after tha there will be http://www.wired.com and http://www.2600.com just giving information away like harlets!!! then there will be other places that use the sacred internet for gabling!!! the next thing you know, people will be setting up swap meets on USENET (oops, wasn't that BEFORE the first web page?) and then spammers will begin culling EAs from every corner!!!
OH THE HUMAITY!!!
yawn, thanks for the hot tip and this stupid story looks familiar too
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL