Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Internet Power Grab

Posted by timothy on from the grabby-grabby dept.

Maple Syrup writes: "Fast Company has an interesting article written by John Ellis about the power shift on the Internet, as large corporate interests use political means to take over what had been a populist medium. The most interesting material comes at the end: 'There are no grass-roots efforts on the Web. The Internet army, which is enormous, hasn't been engaged or conscripted.'"

2 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Paying isn't bad! by KjetilK · · Score: 4, Interesting
    That the Internet is moving away from free as in beer as not in itself a Bad Thing. I've been saying for a long time that we must sacrifice free as in beer to get free as in speech. That is, we need payment options from end user to creator, with the fewest possible hops in between. That way, every small guy could in principle earn a few bucks by putting it on the net. It would be a great thing for cultural diversity, practical freedom of expression, etc.

    We have to stop saying: The Internet should be free as in beer, and start designing, specing and implementing payment mechanisms. They should be implemented in "our" browsers, and who knows, perhaps it could be a "killer app" that breaks MS monopoly.

    --
    Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
  2. Same John Ellis? by sheldon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm trying to figure out if this is the same John Ellis, cousin of George W. Bush, who misreported election 2000 for FoxNews?

    I can't find any confirmation as he appears to be trying to hide his history, but the tone of the article, and the subjects of his other comments seems to point to that conclusion.

    Reading the column it seems to be a case of someone trying to manipulate people by playing off their hot buttons. It's pretty standard political boilerplate opinion column. Reading through his blog I see a variety of the same.

    Anyway, I guess the point is, it's good to know whose opinion it is you are reading. This certainly appears to be the same John Ellis, and I personally would not trust him to have my interests in mind.