Re: <nettime> A DIY Data Manifesto by Scott Gilbertson

[Flick Harrison <flick@flickharrison.com>]

Server space is one thing, BBS networks are an interesting solution, sort
of a HAM radio version of the internet.

I think the backbone needs to be de-privatised as well.

I was under the impression there are places in Europe where the internet
backbone is public, leased out to anyone who wants some.

Here, even the pipeline is under threat - the usage caps and overage
charges (which mostly serve to limit competing businesses, rather than
democratic expression which tends to be lower-bandwidth  ;-) ) are hotly
debated, with Joe Public mostly on the side of Cheaper and Faster but no
dialogue around public pipelines whatsoever.

There are two companies in most of Canada, Shaw and Telus in the west, Bell
and Rogers in the East, who deliver all the internet service, they are
forced to lease out to competitors but they are always pushing for the
power to charge more to their competitors to squeeze their share.

Even the pundits who want Net Neutrality still don't call for public
communications infrastructure.  The net is treated more like phones than
roads, which is a mistake in my opinion.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/933854--geist-the-real-reason-we-pay-so-much-for-internet?bn=1

Our post office is about to abandon (sell) its courier operations, seen as
too incompetitive with commercial enterprises, and when competitive, an
unwanted intrusion on the free market.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/931800--goar-a-smarter-post-office-might-thrive

-Flick

--
* WHERE'S MY ARTICLE, WORLD?
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Flick_Harrison

* FLICK's WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.flickharrison.com 


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org