The best analysis. On Jan 26, 2017 4:41 PM, "Gurumurthy K" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dear teachers, > > Happy Republic day ... As we celebrates the 68th Republic Day, we should > think to what extent the goals of 'justice,liberty, equality and > fraternity' that the preamble to the constitution ( > http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/preamble.html) spoke of, are being > promoted or compromised by the advance of the Internet .... > > The recent focus on digitalization, smart cities, cashless economies etc > should be explored in this light ... > > As the mail says in the end, *"Let’s not assume history has any > inevitable direction. If you want things to move in a particular way, you > have to do things to make it happen. History is made by people – that’s > us."* > > Let us all think, discuss and deliberate in what direction we would like > our country to move towards .... Some of the digital advances may make our > lives more comfortable and efficient, but, as the mail suggests, some > advances clearly dilute our liberty and increase the inequities and > injustice in our society... Gandhi's ideal of 'antyodaya' meant that our > decisions should be guided by the impact on the most marginalized sections > of our society and our digital society should also be a just and equitable > one.... > > Comments welcome... > > regards, > Guru > Guru, IT for Change, Bengaluru > www.ITforChange.net > > > From: InternetPolicy [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Brandt Dainow > Sent: Friday, January 20, 2017 14:15 > To: 'David Sarokin'; 'Kave Salamatian' > Cc: 'ISOC Internet Policy' > Subject: Re: [Internet Policy] WEBCAST Jan 24: Will The Internet Always Be > American? > > History shows us that there is nothing inevitable about things getting > either better or worse. Sometimes people unite to create a better world, > and sometimes powerful elites make things truly horrible for ordinary > people. And either can continue for centuries. Historically most of the > human race has been living under the domination of elites who enforced > their power with ideology and physical violence. Think the Middle Ages in > Europe (1,000 years), monarchical China (2,000 years), the Roman Empire > (1,000 years), etc etc. Generally, improving things for ordinary people > takes many decades of tough work. > > The internet started as both a military system and as an academic > information exchange network. Trends for both liberation and connection > between people co-existed with trends towards domination and walled > gardens. IBM’s business model in the 1960’s – 1980’s was based on > innovation which locked customers in and prevented interoperability with > alternative suppliers. Microsoft, Lotus and others followed this model. I > was a technical manager in Microsoft in the 1980’s and we were formally > taught this model as the key to success. We all knew the internet was > coming, and we all thought it would be totally owned by whoever created the > best tech. I was alerted to the rise of the web in 1992 when Bill Gates > made a speech announcing the web was the next big thing and that “Microsoft > was going to own it.” The idea of an open platform was heresy. Tim > Berners-Lee cites this in his autobiography as a key reason why he did not > patent or sell HTML, but gave it to everyone. In the 1990’s I watched the > same attempts to own the web via control of HTML standards, especially > implementation of new features by people like Netscape and Microsoft before > these features were standardised, on the basis that if everyone used them, > that company would “own” the standard (look at the history of HTML 4.0). > > Companies like Google then demonstrated the economic value of owning > search as the gateway to the web, and user-analytics driven advertising. > Facebook copied this model – own the environment, prevent interoperability, > surveil the user, sell that data. Both rely for their domination on the > fact you cannot go to a competitor and interoperate with their users. If > these systems were open, or at least had open API-based interoperability, > we would be seeing an entire competitive market of social networks, search > systems etc. Those who believe free markets are best for innovation or > economic development should therefore see lack of interoperability and > walled gardens as anti-capitalist. This lack of choice, when combined with > hidden data analytics, meets the Marxist criteria of coercion and economic > exploitation. Marxists should therefore see this same situation as > anti-liberatory. It doesn’t matter what your perspective, as I see it, > there is no justification for domination of entire categories of online > activity by monopolies like this. > > There is no historical evidence this situation will improve of its own > accord. It could get better, or it could get worse. Perhaps one day not > having a Facebook account will be grounds for police investigation. Could > someone argue the best way to kill fake news is to ban all search engines > except Google? In the 1980’s the US government changed the world of email > systems by laying down minimum security standards any supplier had to meet > in order to tender for government contracts. Security features which had > been resisted for years were added to systems like MS Mail and Lotus Notes > in months. Similar moves could be made today on current issues, and I > expect the effect would be the same. > > These matters will only become more urgent as IoT and smart cities > evolve. In the longer term we will all end up embedded in a pervasive > digital environment, becoming known as a “digital fog” (Bonomi, Flavio, > Rodolfo Milito, Jiang Zhu, and Sateesh Addepalli. ‘Fog Computing and Its > Role in the Internet of Things’. In Proceedings of the First Edition of the > MCC Workshop on Mobile Cloud Computing, 13–16. ACM, 2012.). Google clearly > wants to own that entire environment, hence their purchase of IoT systems, > deals with car makers (Bedigian, Louis. ‘TU Automotive Detroit 2016 > Conference Report’. Detroit: TU-Automotive Ltd (Penton), 2016.), moves into > smart city technologies, voice and facial recognition, work on affective > computing (to read your emotions), etc. > > *Let’s not assume history has any inevitable direction. If you want > things to move in a particular way, you have to do things to make it > happen. History is made by people – that’s us.* > > Regards, > Brandt Dainow > https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brandt_Dainow > > > > -- > 1. If a teacher wants to join STF, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org. > in/KOER/en/index.php/Become_a_STF_groups_member > 2. For STF training, visit KOER - http://karnatakaeducation.org. > in/KOER/en/index.php > 4. For Ubuntu 14.04 installation, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org. > in/KOER/en/index.php/Kalpavriksha > 4. For doubts on Ubuntu, public software, visit > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/ > Frequently_Asked_Questions > 5. Are you using pirated software? Use Sarvajanika Tantramsha, see > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Why_public_software > ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Maths & Science STF" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mathssciencestf. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- 1. If a teacher wants to join STF, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Become_a_STF_groups_member 2. For STF training, visit KOER - http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php 4. For Ubuntu 14.04 installation, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Kalpavriksha 4. For doubts on Ubuntu, public software, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions 5. Are you using pirated software? Use Sarvajanika Tantramsha, see http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Why_public_software ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maths & Science STF" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mathssciencestf. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
