Right now, you’re reading this bit of opinion on the web. Maybe you’re at home, maybe you’re at school. It’s possible you’re looking at it on an iProduct or a Blackberry. Maybe you have one of those fancy Galaxy tablets or a new color Nook. Point is, this post is accessible. To you. Right where you stand, sit, lie, kneel, swim, what have you.
This is possible because we have an open internet. My information is accessible to you (and anyone else to cares to take a gander) because, this entire infrastructure exists as a tool for information exchange. Me to you. You to me. Us to everyone. Everyone to us. Individuals, businesses, activists, friends, family... Everyone.
This recent ruling with the FCC doesn’t change that. Not for organic internet connections. Not yet, anyway. It does, however, give wireless carrier the ability to monitor our usage (and, yes, I do realise usage is monitored through many, many different methods on the web, already) and decide when and where they’d like to charge extra fees. Maybe it’ll be a couple cents here and there for a per MB usage fee for social networking sites. Maybe it’ll be a flat fee for video service.
I’m not suggesting that everything in the world should just be accessible, without cost. But the profit gained from those charges would be going to the telecommunications carrier. In short, our wide open access to information has just become another moneymaking scheme for the corporate big shots.
And it’s not just about the Almighty Dollar. When rules begin to shift, when the access of information becomes limited, the individual loses their voice.
The future of your internet, our internet, relies on keeping information alive and accessible.
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