Here is some required reading to get a clearer picture.
Why SOPA and PIPA must Die – Andy Baio
SOPA and PIPA – Khan Academy (That’s the video that’s embedded above.)
Tagged with Internet …
Should Internet Access be a Human Right?
Internet Access Is Not a Human Right – NYTimes.com
Chief internet evangelist at Google Vinton G Cerf on why making access to the internet a human right, is kind of a bonkers idea when you think about it.
… [T]echnology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it.
Don’t Just Watch The TV, Direct The TV
“I finally cracked it” – Marco.org
My wife and I watch TV shows on a TV set, but I wouldn’t say that we “watch TV”.
To me, “watching TV” means turning on a TV set to watch whatever is “on”. More specifically, turning on the TV set and a cable box (and, for many people, a standalone audio receiver as well), to watch whatever is being broadcast on cable TV at the moment, possibly flipping through channels regularly, in order to kill time. It’s an inherently passive activity: infinite entertainment passes by with no effort or interaction required. When one show ends, another begins.
It’s funny. My wife and I recently moved to a new apartment. Well, we moved in but haven’t really moved in totally. We’re waiting on furniture, painting, cleaning, organizing, etc. You know, first world problems. We’re going the same route of just getting internet service and stream things from the web through Netflix and others. But we’re doing it more because we have to, than we want to. Cable TV is too expensive and it’s just not so simple to get just internet. Cable companies make it very difficult for you. To get a justifiable monthly price for just internet, you have to bundle the service with TV, and/or phone lines. Shit you don’t want. Plus your choices are limited when it comes to “shopping around”. A cable provider is usually in control of one particular area or county. Your limited, or in my case you just have plain bad luck. Like not being able to get TV through satellite like Dish or DirectTV because of the location of the building and associations prohibiting putting antennas on the roof, or the phone line wiring being to old and not being able to transmit a TV signal. Yep, those things happened to us.
So that’s my situation. I’ll probably just get an antenna to get the local channels and “watch tv” in that traditional sense Marco refers to, but I’m sure I will be doing it way less and I’m looking forward to doing it way less. It’s time to really direct the tv and not let it direct you.
The Internet in 1995 on MTV
Tagged Internet, MTV, News, Web20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web
20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web
An interactive Google book about how it all works. Extremely cool.
(Via Dan Patterson)
Patrick Stewart Loves the Internet
He emails, his iPhone is an extension of himself [insert Borg joke here], is amazed he can find weather info in 15 seconds, is a hardcore gamer, and generally loves the internet. No Twitter though. He finds it too simplistic.
via Clusterflock
What’s Your Internet Dependency Level?
Rate Your Internet Dependency Level
The Underwire article puts it in five levels, or stages, and uses 3 criteria: Your “immediate reaction”, “what you do while waiting for the connection to come back”, and “if it doesn’t come back in an hour.” I’m at stage 1 so I think I’m ok.
I Click, Therefore I Am
From Thinkers to Clickers: The World Wide Web and the Transformation of the Essence of Being Human
Essay about all things clicking and how it has become into a human need like breathing, eating, and looking for shelter.
As they click on one hyperlink after another, they often forget the initial question to which they were trying to find an answer. This is because the Web offers many distractions to its users in the form of ever changing content, links that are either obsolete or lead to completely new and different Web sites, and pop-ups and banners that advertise goods and services. Often times, as people aimlessly click their way through cyberspace, hyperclick hysteria sets in, and people lose their bearings in cyberspace and have to click their way back to more familiar cyber territories.
Bolded to highlight that while I don’t think the above link is obsolete, the essay was written in 2003. So there you go.
What is a Browser?
The Google Chrome team shot a video in Times Square, NY asking people on the street what is a browser. You would think that people would know, being that the word “browser” is the less geeky of names in a world dominated by acronyms like RSS, CSS, or HTML. But only 8% of the people knew what it was. This is not surprising. Asking a question in such an ad hoc fashion is like going to a casino expecting to win immediately. The rest gave answers like, “Google”, “Facebook”, and the more sophisticated, a “search engine.” This is interesting, but not because people are ignorant about software, but how transparent software has become to users. Twenty years from now you’ll ask people what Operating System they use, and they’ll probably answer, “I use a Mac, or “I use a PC.” That’s almost happening right now.
The Internet On Television – Television On the Internet
Jimmy Fallon makes jokes about Facebook updates, CNN’s Rick Sanchez reads your tweets, Tosh 1.0 curates stupid video memes, and everyone else is mostly making fun of Twitter. I don’t know about you, but every time I see this on TV I cringe and feel awkward.
The web is finally mainstream. Or is it?
TV networks are scrambling. They know that they’re loosing viewers to the web. Particularly the younger viewer. The 18 to 34 crowd. So they’re looking for ways to get them back to watching Television. But the TV industry’s days are counted and this attempt to merge with digital culture is failing. We get it. You’re internet savvy and are catching up with the times. But are you really?
Part of the problem is that the people that watch television mostly watch television and people that use the web mostly use the web. It’s a simple conclusion, but that’s the reality. Instead of focusing on bringing back lost viewers, they should focus on keeping the ones they still have. But doing Twitter and Facebook jokes is not the best way. The jokes are not transferring because while the majority of viewers are familiar with these web services, it sounds more like an inside joke.
I’m giving the news networks like CNN the benefit of the doubt however, but I dare you to watch Rick Sanchez without a laptop on your lap. Seriously. Try it.
So yes, the web may be mainstream and the new medium of entertainment, but it’s still and would probably always be (I hope) a utilitarian medium. TV networks strategy of embracing the web is coming from the premise that the web is something people consume. But the web is still very much something that people use. Maybe one day it will all merge together or the industry will die, but right now they’re not focusing exactly on the best the web has to offer.
