Christoph Reuss wrote:
>
> Brad McCormick replied:
[snip]
> > One thing seems fairly certain, to me, however. Insofar as the medium is
> > the message, Intel and Dell and AOL and Microsoft and MCI-Worldcom
> > and Consolidated Edison, etc. are the medium. Never has a "populist"
> > phenomenon been so massively dependent on such big business.
>
> Funny, but I (and many others) have been on the Internet for years *without*
> using products from "Intel and Dell and AOL and Microsoft and MCI-Worldcom
> and Consolidated Edison". Let's face it, their stuff is for dummies, and
> M$ has "slept" the Internet for years. It's pretty easy to avoid their stuff
> (in fact you're better off without it), as the Internet is largely based on
> GNU software and "any" hardware. Never has a "populist" phenomenon been
> so massively **INdependent** on such big business!
I forgot Cisco Systems in my list of corporate dependencies of the
Internet. I believe that far more than half
(perhaps almost all?) of all the
"IP packets" (the little bundles of bits that are the building
blocks of all Internet communication) go through Cisco
routers.
Populist communication media? How about Ham and CB radio? I think
they came closer to being independent of big corporations,
but they were also far less "powerful" than the Internet.
I am not an expert. So I'll ask some questions and see what I
can learn from others:
+ To what extent do you think the Internet is dependent
on big business and big government?
+ What effects if any do you think such dependency or
lack of dependency has on the role of the Internet
in the lives of middle class and working class persons
in the USA, Australia, Canada, etc.?
Yours through Cisco routers, probably some MCI fiber optic
cable, some Dell or Compaq servers, Verizon telephone
lines, and who knows what
other expensive hardware (and, yes, also through some
"freeware" Apache software at least at my ISP...)....
+\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
