<nettime> Internet II is being done

[Richard Pettauer <r.pettauer@apa.at>]

What if...

...we're all right?

"And then - we had the plague. 
The last hardcore MCs are gathering 2
fight the pestilence [...]
But why? I like the pain! [...]
I LIKE THIS WORLD!"
	(Method Man: Judgment Day)



If the university wants 2 remain the 1 place
for thought an critique it isn't any more anyhow,
how can the scientific community prostitute itself
like that?

>an initiative led by 
>more than 130 universities working with the government and 
>the IT industry to develop new network services and 
>applications not possible over today's congested public 
>Internet.

Doesn't that sound pretty sweet? "Today's congested public
Internet" - doesn't that somehow sound like "Hey, we're waitin'
4 tomorrow's non-public Internet!" And what would that kind
of non-public Internet be like? Probably a place where
"freedom of corporate communication" (=spam till u drop),
"secure monetary transactions" (=eliminate privacy, identify
buyers, not persons), "high bandwith broadcast" (=high bandwith
broadcast) are gonna be the no.1 paradigms? It can be quite
annoying sometimes 2 watch the current <progression> on issues
of new media, since all that seems 2 happen is regulatory work
on all levels 4 the sake of <buying online>. It's the crucial 
watershed which we are experiencing right now, that seems to
develop more and more every day in favor of corporate interests.

Let me remind U 1ce again of William Gibson: His vision of
big companies takin' over seems 2 get true sooner than we
expected, considering the enormous effort that is laid into
the construction of non-denominational (yes, I'm being politically
incorrect here), non-offensive, highly open [4 the ones willing 2 pay]
networks of capitalism.

This, being a vicious circle, is all infected w/ the virus of 
vicious circles - there's no easy way out. Some of U may sometimes
have considered the hypothetical idea of setting up an <Internet II>,
cleaned of all the mistakes made and truely & deeply constructed 2 serve
the democratic interests of all y'all - but they're doin' it 4 us.

And wouldn't it be much easier 2 restrict access 2 Internet II only 2
the 1s who are willin'&able 2 spend money? Wouldn't that save a lot of
costs? I mean, infrastructure has to be financed ... continue from here.

Read more about Internet II at:

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/1999/0212internet2.html


Just some thoughts...

truely yours,

ritchie
---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl