Slashdot Mirror
Internet.org's Slave and Helicopter-Powered Internet
theodp writes "As reported earlier on Slashdot, Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced the launch of Internet.org, 'a global partnership with the goal of making internet access available to the next 5 billion people,' including 'those who cannot currently afford it.' So it's especially bizarre that just a few days ago, Internet.org carried a FAQ which joked that slaves were used to create an Internet for the Pharaohs. And until recently, Internet.org's home page sported a photo purporting to show that freighters are used to rush Internet porn to affluent residents of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and an illustration showing how helicopters deliver Internet data to actor George Clooney's magnificent Lake Como Villa. So keep an eye on how your domain is used, kids, especially if you plan to use it soon to position yourself and your partners as saints who champion the right of the world's poor to Internet access."
So the domain was owned by someone else, doing different things with it. Sounds like it was funny... or trying to be funny.
Why do I care about this?
.
Honestly this matters so little it seems like a forced story trying to find something to smear Zuckerberg and his buddies. The organization bought the domain from a weirdo? That's important for such a short period of time that it's already meaningless. Must be a slow news day.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
And so should everyone else. It's historical parody, and probably not that far from the truth when it comes to the Egyptian system of a few millenia ago -- surely Tutankhamen was the kid everyone in the neighborhood called for support. :)
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Call the feds, someone who legitimately owned the domain had a sense of humor! How dare they! Don't they know that every time we laugh, the terrorists win???
Seriously, I rarely complain about stories on Slashdot, but... WTF, Slashdot? New owner of domain uses it differently than former owner. Film at 11.
By real news agencies and papers. The onion strikes again.
this is the guy whos sole interest in "the internet" as it stands in his portfolio of offerings is to ensure two billion people are capable of being catalogued as potential members of a cacophany of target demographics for sale to the highest bidder. For him to give two shits about the underprivileged masses who cannot afford a free-as-in-speech internet experience would be the event that shattered occhams razor. What he cares about is exactly what investors are stampeeding from in droves: emerging markets. While you may not be able to sell shit to these people, you can be damned sure they add an impressive bump to your portfolio if they somehow become the product you sell. Convincing major multinational corporations they have any worth is however a zuckerberg trademark at this point, although i can imagine a few dictatorships that are more than excited at the prospect of a new facebook branded spyglass with which they can peer into their citizens lives and crush formenting dissent.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Stuff that matters
Does anyone else have this mental picture of rows and rows of network administrators chained to their routers, while a huge, shirtless man with brass bands on his biceps pounds on a large drum, and Mark Zuckerberg shouts down from above "Increase the drumbeat!!"? No? Just me?
The idea sounds noble, but I have to wonder if free internet access is really the "greatest good" that we could be doing for these people in 2nd or 3rd worlds??
Shore, the North Americas are tapped out in terms of new social media growth - we accept that fact.
So let's tap into a previously un-tapped world of extremely poor people in under privileged parts of the world - Genius!
But when these people likely don't have basics like clean drinking water and food - is a crippling social media addiction really going to benefit them so the FB stock price can rise a few cents??
Damn helicopters are quite an upgrade to transmission of IP via avian carrier, but, I am not sure its a very smart one, as carrier drops could be very expensive.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Well social media is a proven way to start some great social unrest, in many of the 2nt world countries. Free open internet for all, means far more death and fighting, until people finally realize. Dude is is just some nut posting stuff, Don't let it bother you, if you ignore him then he doesn't have power over you.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The idea sounds noble
I'm fairly sure everyone see's this for what it is.
FB cares about one thing, more data points to monetize.
FB cares about people about as much as the IRS cares about people.
No one should have to choose between access to the internet and food or medicine.
If you are really having to decide between those basic items or internet access, I think there may be some more important things to put your last few dollars toward besides streaming cat videos.
Incredibly generic website name had former owner, who at one point posted jokes. More at 11.
I don't even really get why this would be in poor taste? The idea that egyptians used slaves as labor is pretty much accepted as fact, and seems to be in safe territory for a joke to me (despite recent studies that suggest most of the meaningful labor in ancient Egypt was actually done by paid workers). And shocker, there is pornography on the internet; can we not make jokes about that anymore?
I really don't get what all the fuss is about, even if Zuckerburg were somehow actually connected to the content the site formerly hosted.
Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced the launch of Internet.org, 'a global partnership with the goal of making internet access available to the next 5 billion people,' including 'those who cannot currently afford it.'
Facebook Update #247: Location: Ethiopia: Still no potable water, hoping that clicking "Like Brita filters" helps soon.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
There actually have been some studied connected to the OLPC project that suggest internet access is incredibly valuable to people in developing nations, but not for the reasons you're thinking.
These people we're talking about might be 150 miles from the nearest library with a full set of encyclopedias; for that matter, they might not even know how to read. How good do you think their agricultural practices are, given that level of background knowledge? When presented with the challenge of cleaning their drinking water, how far do you think they get? How about diagnosing diseases, planning for weather, or being aware of potential politcal danger? Do you think they could do a bit better at those things given access to Wikipedia, WebMD, Instructables, Reuters and YouTube?
On the same route, perhaps they could even begin to improve their own infrastructure given a bit of access to the world of modern industry? Maybe a small village could save up to invest in a solar array, and have lights inside at night? Or a water purifier so they don't die of cholera anymore?
Knowledge is power, the internet is distributed knowledge. It could do a lot more to help people than a bit of financial aid or temporary food supplies might.
Zuckerburg just wants the poor to have access to the Internet. This is not about finding more eyeballs to serve Facebook ads, for serious.
Some other organizations already take care of the basics. Zuckenberg is good at Teh Internetz (tm). Why can't he start a project like that?
You care about because this Slashdot snippet alludes to a possibly sinister undercarriage of a white wistfully front-themed information supercauseway. The information supercauseway to hell is paved with a three-billion god head delusion. Unrelated, everything I now take in on slashdot is tainted by the fact that there's no way to delete a slashdot user account. What the fuck is up with that? At least let me change my name. Muther fuckers. I love you.
Oh, biblical jokes about Pharoah using Israelite slaves to build the modern Internet gets its own thread, but biblical jokes about Pharaoh and modern chemical weapons to free Israelite slaves gets downmodded to oblivion.
You all are disgusting anti-memeites!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
These people we're talking about might be 150 miles from the nearest library with a full set of encyclopedias; for that matter, they might not even know how to read.
So they can't read books at a library, but they can read printed text on the Internet - THAT REALLY IS AN AMAZING BENEFIT AFTER ALL!! ^_^
There actually have been some studied connected to the OLPC project that suggest internet access is incredibly valuable to people in developing nations, but not for the reasons you're thinking.
You're right that's not the reason I was thinking.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Or they could get laptops that are set to speak aloud and accept speech input. Or they could be be pre-configured with shortcuts to online language learning programs, allowing literacy to spread. Or they could rely more heavily on video, which can be incredibly helpful as a learning tool for people who are barely literate but have rudimentary written language skills. Need I go on with really easy solutions?
As a real world example:
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
But way to go; if your goal was to make me look momentarily stupid for trying to point out the possible benefits of a philanthropic program, mission accomplished.
I guess kids are kids no matter where they're from...
Crank the Facebook user base to 7 billion.
Flawed logic, much?
So Zuckerberg's intent is to bring the Internet to those without Internet...yet they need to access a site (on the Internet) to do so...Anybody see a problem with this?
And all of your suggestions are great - but none of them actually appear in Internet.org's manifesto.
Unless Internet.org plans to send computers pre-configured for text-2-voice to third world countries - those illiterate children would once again be faced with the burden of reading instructions to figure out how to set that up. It's a simple chicken & egg problem.
To quote an Episode of Archer regarding philanthropies:
“Nourish A Child, Shoe A Child, Bespectacled a Child, One Laptop Per Child Soldierwhich unfortunately became one thousand laptops per warlord.”
+ http://www.geekbinge.com/2013/04/05/archer-season-4-episode-12-review-sea-tunt-part-1/
That's stupid, there will surely be some people who will know or learn something and show the rest how to use it. Everyone has to start from somewhere but what we do know is that without the opportunity to start they can't.
So he's creating a domain/website to host content which is going to help the 3rd world who dont have internet access?
reminds me of those Facebook posts where you like a picture of a starving child because that helps them.
It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
Here is the old page on the way back machine if you want to see it -- http://web.archive.org/web/20130806180833/http://www.internet.org/
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
Except, as noted and described in that article I linked, there are already some deployments in place that accomplish exactly this. They successfully allowed illiterate children to not only learn basic written english, but also to learn the tablet technology to a level that they were able to override system-level modifications made by the admins who set them up.
Also as awesome as Archer is, I don't think it exactly qualifies as a reliable source for geopolitical fact. Most warlords would likely have very little interest in equipping their soldiers with outdated solar-powered tablets pre-loaded with alphabet games.
I accept your rebuttal - but I'm still waiting for a citation that maps what you are describing to what is actually happen in the article.