Is the world now an open source society?

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I disagree

TV was evolutionary, never revolutionary. It did more than radio, but not much more. It allowed people to see what was happening on the other side of the planet, in real time, but that was its limit. Like radio, it was a one-way system.

The power of the internet is that it's a two way street with a number of cross roads and intersections. That's what makes it even more significant than TV.

Many years back, before public internet access was available, I was a member of FIDOnet, an international network working over phone lines at what was as fast as a modem could go at the time (1200bps). Back then, I realized the temendous potential and possbile future impact that computers combined with global area networks would have. I was able to communicate, share ideas, and even collaborate on projects with people on the other side of the planet, something I would never have been able to do otherwise.

I might have been able to communicate and collaborate over the phone before, if I knew who to talk to, but that was a one-to-one communication, and it required that I know the other person's phone number.

With the computer network, I don't need to know the other person in any way. If they're interested in a topic that I'm also interested in, I'll meet them online, as I have many others. We'll communicate with each other, bounce ideas back and forth, have someone we never heard of before tell us we're doing it wrong and offer their own opinions, and collaborate amongst a bunch of people we otherwise know very little about.

You could never do that with TV.

And this is what is so revolutionary about the internet. TV let us see the world, but the internet makes us part of it. No longer do we just watch the images rolling in from Iran. Now we can twitter with the people who are living through it, get their first hand opinions, offer them support and comfort. The internet has truly turned the world into a global village.

I always like the example of the Debian development community. I'm not sure if it is still true, but at one time, it was geographically the largest collabarative volunteer project in the world, with people at the south pole, in Siberia, and at Alert Station in Canada. It had developpers on every continent. And most of all, the vast majority of them had never met each other face to face, and only knew each other online because they shared a common interest in Debian. To join, all you had to do was ask.

TV never had the ability and it still doesn't.

The power of the internet is in its ability to allow like-minded individuals to come together and to share ideas and collaborate no matter where they are in the world.

TV never had that.

Posted by: mheartwood   Posted on: 06/30/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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