* xposted at dKos
The Information Toll Road

As the reality of an Information Toll Road draws near, people from all points of cyberspace are rallying around Net Neutrality, and airing their grievances in terms of that concept.

This is a strategic mistake that is going to allow the corporate Communications Cartel to push through their agenda and lock down the internet.
The internet is built around open standards and reliable and cheap access.

I run a few websites for communities that I am involved with and for my small business. I depend on these open standards to allow me to share information with my communities and my perspective customers. I built my web presence on Open Source software, so I am greatly indebted to the Open Source movement for both creating and protecting my ability to do the things that I do online.

The same could be said of the corporate Communications Cartel. They have co-opted many ideas and concepts from the Open Source movement, and have made them widespread realities for most of the planet. But let’s be clear on one thing: the wonders of the private sector and markets did not create these things, it was a level playing field, open standards and access that made these things happen.

Firefox went global, even in the absence of a level playing field, because of open standards and access. Thousands of useful products, plug-ins, and extensions have made huge impacts on Information Technology, and since been integrated into the Internet as we know it. Most of these came from people and companies that would be left out in the cold if we allow corporate cartels to create the Information Toll Road.

The Information Toll Road is a dead end.

Information Markets and the Internet

In the United States, before the Internet, a citizen had the right to free speech, but did not have the right to be heard. With the advent of the internet, that changed; all of a sudden everyone had not only the ability to speak freely, but they had the ability to be heard.

When the Telecom Bill was pushed through by the corporate Communications Cartel in 1996, there was all kinds of talk of equality and redistributing information power: “Every man a publisher and content creator”. Never mind the fact that the Telecom Bill consolidated the power of the corporate Communications Cartel (and the Corporate Media Cartel), the people were going to get something out of it.

Most never guessed it would be the shaft.

Decreased competition and relaxed regulation allowed access costs to skyrocket as options for the consumer were limited. When several controlling entities act as a cartel, limiting access and usability to drive up profit, an unhealthy market is created. When we talk about something as important as the free-flow of information, we are talking about something as important to society as air and water are to people.

Fortunately society nor people matter in markets, all that matters is profit. By this standard, the Information Toll Road Bill is an extremely important, and wonderful piece of legislation. At this point in time, so much information is shared instead of sold for profit. We are using their markets to share information; the nerve! Not only are we using their markets to share information, costing them profits, but we are sharing information that threatens the very concept of profit today, future profits for tomorrow, and to shed a light on nefarious past profits.

Rest assured that if the Information Toll Road Bill passes, we will pay to share important information. Information harmful to powerful interests will be scrubbed from the internet through restricted access and bandwidth and oppressive costs. The corporate Communications Cartel wants to lock you into their captive market, and they want you to pay. We should not allow ourselves and the internet to be taken hostage by the corporate Communication Cartel.

Wrapping it up:

The concept that the defenders of the internet have chosen to rally behind is ‘Net Neutrality’. My understanding of it is that it is an industry term, and a high level industry term at that. I believe it has far more resonance with the Yahoos, Googles and Sony’s of the world than it does with people, and people are going to make or break this for all of us.

Describe ‘Net Neutrality’ in 10 words or less. Now make that description hard hitting and visceral so that people care.

I suggest that we run away from Net Neutrality, and let the Googles and Yahoos trumpet it in high level corporate meetings, and we take a message to the people that is far more emotive and visceral.

I propose that the Information Toll Road become the frame that we all get behind. It is easy to understand, and it is far more simple than net neutrality.

 

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