The Way I See It - Protect the Net

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Wed, Oct 28, 2009, 7:00 am  //  Ham Hayes

INTERNET - TOP 10 COUNTRIES
With highest number of users
Source: www.internetworldstats.com We are looking at the all but certain demise of printed newspapers, and the conversion of TV and cable news into entertainment. Our last, best hope for getting hard news is the Internet. Or is it?
The Internet is the fastest growing technology ever and its global growth continues to be explosive. 2008 saw over 200 billion legitimate emails per day and over 58 trillion spam emails for the year. At the beginning of 2009, total Internet users were estimated at 1.6 billion. Some analysts predict over half the world’s population will soon be connected. China has the largest number of users, and along with India, Brazil and Russia, have growth rates of over 1,000 percent. Despite those huge numbers, less than 25% of the world’s population currently uses the Internet. A projected 50% growth in world population over the next 40 years will add an additional 3 billion potential users, driving the need for new Internet policy, architecture and technology.

While the Internet can keep us informed of world events, the sheer volume of available information can easily overwhelm the user. Significant and deadly events appear to be happening more frequently and these events seem to be more complex and have bigger impacts. But whether this is the reality of accelerating economic, social, political and environmental changes, or simply an impression due to the sheer volume of information, is arguable. In truth, it is probably a combination of both.

It used to be, when it came to social, political and economic events, we relied on journalists and commentators in the now ancient world of print. We won’t find many journalists on the Internet; they have fallen victim to the increased speed and volume of events. Internet news is delivered to your mobile phone almost as soon as the event occurs; humans like high speed delivery. Perhaps the desire for real time information is built into our DNA as a survival mechanism. After all, who wants to find out about a threatened attack the day after the threat? On the other hand, you may have noticed that essentially all the news stories in your printed newspaper are at least a day old, sometimes older. Newspapers are dead or dying because they are unable to provide speedy delivery of essential information. It is also why they are trying to move their traditional reporting on-line.

But we are still in the process of inventing our new informational world, and for the moment, it is the Wild West. Private companies, the original commercial creators of the Internet, were once entrepreneurial and exciting. Now, they are behemoths seemingly bent on profit and control of their place on the Internet regardless of the cost to users or innovation. Of one thing we can be certain: big forces are at work, and they are battling over such things as personal liberty, corporate behavior and government regulation and control. And we have TWO foxes in the henhouse: corporate greed and excessive government. Because whether local or global, every institution, private or public, wants to maintain and expand its power and control. And as emerging and existing economic giants struggle with environmental impacts, large scale conflicts, global injustices, and the declining health and welfare of their citizens, retaining control becomes even more important. Many can, and sometimes do, use censorship, propaganda and other mechanisms to achieve this end. The Internet is especially vulnerable to these strategies.

Scientists, researchers, educational institutions and the US government were the creators of the Internet. Starting in the 1980s, commercialization of the Internet brought us the possibility of connecting almost every person on earth. But the unbridled success of this commercialization and other global factors now threaten open, fair access to information. Regulatory actions on the horizon (aka “Net Neutrality”) hope to correct the imbalance that now favors controlling corporations. Internet users, including individuals as well as private and public institutions, need to be aware and thoughtful about upcoming regulatory proposals and changes to the Internet. If current trends in news collection, analysis and delivery continue, the Internet will become the dominant source for information in our world. We need to keep it from becoming the tool of corporations or governments. At stake is our ability to comprehend and survive the dramatic changes occurring on our planet and in our society.