Re: Networks are for corporations and offices, right?

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"  on Wed, 14
Jun 2006 14:22:11 -0400


>> Parity is a crucial concept of the Internet,
>> and I for one like that -- it inhibits a takeover.

> Hmm. You mean if there were different kinds of
> networking protocols, some VBC could lock people it
> didn't like out of a wide range of things?

No, what I mean is, that my node is treated no differently than Volvo's node,
or GM's node -- structurally, they are really not distinguishable. The playing
field is +/- level. But what's happened since about 1993 onward, is that big
biz has infiltrated the Internet to an extraordinary degree. In large part it
is their emergence that ignited the hackers and the malice. I well remember a
time when the general comment was that nobody had yet figured out how to make a
two cents from Internet commerce. (And at that time, there weren't any
viruses.) Now it's utterly different, and if Volvo was called Holmgren instead
of Volvo, I'd stand a good chance of having holmgren.org taken away from me by
fiat (as it were) and gifted to an auto manufacturer. I think Business would
like nothing more than to eliminate the white noise and static on the Net, so
that they stand out. On TV or in print media etc, they can do that, because
they buy the time or the space. On the Net, they can't -- there's nothing to
buy (that's GOOD!). This is a very remarkable and unusual situation in our
capitalist society, and it's due to the fact that the guys who designed the
Internet were thinking very clearly.

I wish I could take credit for "thank god I'm an atheist", but that honor goes
to the great artist Luis Buñuel.

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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