p2pnet - rss feed: Our Net and their Net
p2pnet.net news view:- Center for Responsive Politics reports that this year’s elections in the United States will run $2.6 billion USD.
If we were to have had the same kind of push provided by our government for establishing a telecommunications infrastructure based on wireless technology that was provided for our effort to land man on the moon, that $1 billion USD per year could have been spent on education, feeding the homeless, providing healthcare for America’s children —- or create a 21st century telecommunications infrastructure.
P2P networks, videoconferencing, wireless community-based networks, might combine to enable even the poorest of us to enjoy the instantaneous destruction of every politician’s lies and deceits projected across a media convergence that is controlled by the people, not a handful of power-brokers.
Aaah, the light bulb is beginning to glow.
Imagine a world where one speaks over a multimedia videoconference in a town hall setting, and the entire country is participating, able to, with a single click, much as we might pick up a telephone, today, rebut to that same nationwide community, another side to the politicians’ lies and deceits. Imagine, when a politician offers a videotaped message, others can choose to simultaneously hook into their favorite political watchdog group to view watchdog group annotations of the politician’s message.
How long do you think it would take to completely obliterate our government representatives’ ‘professional courtesy’ practices that permit them to respond ONLY to their constituents? I mean, when was the last time you wanted to contact the Pennsylvania congressman about an issue that affects you, directly, only to receive the obligatory ‘professional courtesy requires you contact your elected representative, not me’.
I live modestly, in north-central Iowa. I receive a small pension (VA Pension), having served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. When I first walked through the doors of the VA medical center where I was living, my health problems were severe, to the point I just might not be here, today, without their assistance and wonderful healthcare provisions.
I am truly grateful for all that America has given me. In return, I look forward to giving back, and back, until I die. When a child can’t look forward to having an Internet that allows her to express her creativity, innovation, desire to learn; or to enjoy the wonders of what I’ve experienced, it pains me deeply.
Our Internet is referred to as the “commodity Internet”. If you haven’t heard that term, before, it’s because you haven’t been a part of discussions that take place in university administration, government agencies, or large corporate board rooms.
It’s a term that is apparently not to be used when speaking in the public arena. It’s a favorite, almost required, term lobbyists use when they speak to our elected representatives about legislating away our Internet as we know it.
You see, it just makes sense. The Universal Service Fund, which expanded in the mid-nineties to make sure all schools would be connected to the Internet, was actually intended to build out what we know, today, as the Internet2 project.
Internet2 connects major universities around the world, along with government agencies, and corporations that gain membership. So, you see, there are two Internets. One for them, and one for the rest of us. The Internet2 can easily and logically be a controlled environment for research and development, satisfying some that our country’s creativity and innovation concerns are being met in some kind of pseudodemocratic society.
The other Internet, the one you and I use, is slated to be the “commodity Internet” —– the one that acts as the 21st century engine for economic growth. It needs to be controlled, though, and to that end, it must cease to exist as we now know it, an Internet that gives hope, creativity, and innovation opportunities to even the poorest of those that find a way to access it.
One billion dollars a year could build a really nice tin can antenna wireless infrastructure (cost of $3 to $7 USD per antenna), don’t you think?
Tom Poe - p2pnet
[Tom Poe is a VA pensioner, living in Iowa, USA. He says he likes the idea of replenishing our public domain, and at the same time, buying directly from Independent Artists.]
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