Google as provider of a search engine, gmail, and youtube among other services is key player of the internet. How they play their own terms and regulations, with the rules of governments, commercial corporations including their own is significant. Google has a power to steer the direction of the internet. But this power is build on trust. Google is good, what if it turns bad? What if it betrays the trust?
Then we'll know once again that true powers reside in the people and internet is for them and by them. No one corporation can dictate the fate of cyberspace.
At least, it is recognizable now that Google has a vision that reaches to the whole globe for data and information which is made availabe for all (within it's terms) and the same time sitting on the 'search engine' and 'gmail' and 'youtube', all for free and for freedom of speech, who could beat it?
“The idea that the user is sovereign has transformed the meaning of free speech,” Wu said enthusiastically about the Internet age. But Google is not just a neutral platform for sovereign users; it is also a company in the advertising and media business.
May be, greed will blind it's vision.
What could Google do to improve? It has now contributed Chrome to the the world of browsers? Would it contribute an Operating Sytem? Or provide services as a Domain Name Server? Or host websites? Would Google still be a player in the next generation of world wide web?
"She stressed the importance for Googleof bringing its own open culture to foreign countries while still taking into account local laws, customs and attitudes. “What is the mandate? It’s ‘Be everywhere, get arrested nowhere and thrive in as many places as possible.’ ”
In this cocktail created by Google, what could make it sour?
Would it play a role in preserving and saving endangered languages?
Much like Vannevar Bush, J.C.R. Licklider's contribution to the development of the Internet consists of ideas not inventions. He foresaw the need for networked computers with easy user interfaces. His ideas foretold of graphical computing, point-and -click interfaces, digital libraries, e-commerce, online banking, and software that would exist on a network and migrate to wherever it was needed. He has been called, "Computing's Johnny Appleseed," a well-deserved nickname for a man who planted the seeds of computing in the digital age. (Waldrop, 2000).
Licklider planted his metaphorical seeds at two very important places. Most importantly, he worked for several years at ARPA where he set the stage for the creation of the ARPANET. He also worked at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) the company that supplied the first computers connected on the ARPANET.[cont]
Several years before the ARPANET was created, Paul Baran had two ideas that became very important in the development of the ARPANET. The first was the idea of building a distributed network. The second was a technique for data transmission that later came to be called packet switching.[cont]
Douglas Engelbart has always been ahead of his time, having ideas that seemed far-fetched at the time but later were taken for granted. For instance, as far back as the 1960s he was touting the use of computers for online conferencing and collaboration. Engelbart's most famous invention is the computer mouse, also developed in the 1960s, but not used commercially until the 1980s. Like Vannevar Bush and J.C.R. Licklider, Engelbart wanted to use technology to augment human intellect. He saw technology, especially computers, as the answers to the problem of dealing with the ever more complex modern world and has dedicated his life to the pursuit of developing technology to augment human intellect.[continue]
As a graduate student, Bob Metcalfe worked on the ARAPNET at MIT. He later developed a new technology, called Ethernet, for connecting computers in a local network.
Work on the ARAPNET
Metcalfe was born in 1946, in Brooklyn, NY. He attended MIT where he earned degrees in electrical engineering and business management. He then earned a master's degree in applied mathematics from Harvard. While working on his Ph.D. in computer science at Harvard, he took a job at MIT building the hardware that would link MIT to the ARPANET. For a 1972 ARPANET conference he wrote an introductory pamphlet entitled Scenarios. The booklet included 19 scenarios for using the ARPANET, listed available resources at the various sites, and basic usage instructions.
Metcalfe had done a good job writing his informative booklet and was chosen to take ten AT&T officials on a virtual tour of the network. Unfortunately, the system crashed while Metcalfe was giving his demonstration. "I looked up in pain and I caught them smiling, delighted that packet-switching was flaky," said Metcalfe. "This I will never forget. It confirmed for them that circuit-switching technology was here to stay, and this packet-switching stuff was an unreliable toy that would never have much impact in the commercial world. It was clear to me they were tangled in the past." (Engelbart in Hafner & Lyon, 182).
Metcalfe's unpleasant experience with the AT&T officials made a lasting impression. "I saw that there are people who will connive against innovation," said Metcalfe. "They're hostile to it. And that has shaped my behavior ever since." (Engelbart in Kirsner)[continue]
As a graduate student at UCLA, Vint Cerf was involved in the early design of the ARPANET. He was present when the first IMP was delivered to UCLA. He is called the "father of the Internet." He earned this nickname as one of the co-authors of TCP/IP-the protocol that allowed ARPA to connect various independent networks together to form one large network of networks-the Internet.
A Young Man with Style
Cerf grew up in Los Angeles. He did very well in school and showed a strong aptitude for math. He had an unusual style of dress for a school kid. He wore a jacket and tie most days. Cerf is still known for his impeccable style. He is usually seen in three-piece suits.
As a child, Cerf began to develop an interest in computers. He attended Stanford and majored in mathematics, but continued to grow more interested in computing. "There was something amazingly enticing about programming," said Cerf. "You created your own universe and you were master of it. The computer would do anything you programmed it to do. It was this unbelievable sandbox in which every grain of sand was under your control." [continue]
Ted Nelson is a somewhat controversial figure in the computing world. For thirty-something years he has been having grand ideas but has never seen them through to completed projects. His biggest project, Xanadu, was to be a world-wide electronic publishing system that would have created a sort universal libary for the people.He is known for coining the term "hypertext." He is also seen as something of a radical figure, opposing authority and tradition. He has been called "one of the most influential contrarians in the history of the information age." (Edwards, 1997). He often repeats his four maxims by which he leads his life: "most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong." (Wolf, 1995)
Beginnings
Nelson was raised by his grandparents in Greenwich Village, New York. His father is a movie director and his mother an actor. He had little contact with his father and almost none with his mother. He was lonely as a child and had problems caused by his Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
Nelson attended Swarthmore college where he earned a BA in philosophy. In 1960, he enrolled in graduate school at Harvard. During his first year he attempted a term project creating a writing system similar to a word processor, but that would allow different versions and documents to be linked together nonlinearly, by association. This was, in part, an attempt to keep track of his own sometimes frantic associations and daydreamings brought about by his ADD.[continue]
Vannevar Bush was never directly involved with the creation or development of the Internet. He died before the creation of the World Wide Web. Yet many consider Bush to be the Godfather of our wired age often making reference to his 1945 essay, "As We May Think." In his article, Bush described a theoretical machine he called a "memex," which was to enhance human memory by allowing the user to store and retrieve documents linked by associations. This associative linking was very similar to what is known today as hypertext. Indeed, Ted Nelson who later did pioneering work with hypertext credited Bush as his main influence (Zachary, 399). Others, such as J.C.R. Licklider and Douglas Engelbart have also paid homage to Bush.
Bush's innovative idea for automating human memory was obviously important in the development digital age, but even more important was his influence on the institution of science in America. His work to create a relationship between the government and the scientific establishment during WWII changed the way scientific research is carried on in the U.S. and fostered the environment in which the Internet was later created. [continue]
TKO of Comcast Sets Stage for a Better Internet August 1st, 2008 by tkarr
Today the FCC delivered a technical knock-out to Comcast. In a landmark decision, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein approved an “enforcement order” that would require Comcast to stop interfering with the use of popular peer-to-peer applications by people on its network.
The FCC Hammers Comcast
Today’s FCC move is precedent-setting. It sends a powerful message to phone and cable companies that blocking access to the Internet will not be tolerated.
It also gives the FCC (one still controlled by industry-friendly Republicans) the teeth to stop powerful companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from getting between you and what you want to do online.
And it wouldn’t have happened without the strong public backlash against phone and cable companies and their gatekeeper ambitions. Activists, bloggers, consumer advocates and everyday people who love an open Internet took on entrenched corporate power and won — defying every ounce of conventional wisdom in Washington.
The Comcast Mafia
Through its D.C. mafia, Comcast had been exerting intense political and financial pressure on the FCC’s Martin, who in July had announced his intention to sanction Comcast for mucking with the Web.
But the Republican chairman stood his ground — alongside Democratic Commissioners Copps and Adelstein — and instilled some hope that, even in a divided city, the public’s interest can win out over partisanship and corruption.
It also follows more than two years of intense organizing by a coalition of organizations dedicated to preserving the democracy of the Internet. During this time, more than 1.6 million people sacrificed time and energy to contact Congress and the FCC, speak out at town meetings, collect signatures on street corners and on campuses, and spread the gospel of an open Internet via blogs, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.
A Movement Milestone
A people-powered movement for a free and open Internet is taking shape around issues of Net Neutrality, open access, online privacy and digital inclusion.
Today’s FCC victory is a milestone for the movement, but the work of creating a more accessible, open and affordable Internet is really only just beginning.
Companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon are continuing to fight Net Neutrality using lobbyists, lawyers and campaign contributions. They’re aligning with powerful forces in Washington to spy on their users without warrant - and then gain retroactive immunity via Washington. They’re looking working with the Hollywood industry associations to sift through information we send and download online to impose a draconian copyright regime on the Web, They’re quietly snooping for data about our private online choices to turn over to advertisers.
Telco Doublespeak
Inside the Beltway, Big Telco and Cable are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create special rules written in their favor.
For all of their talk of “deregulation” and “free markets,” cable and telephone lobbyists work aggressively behind the scenes to force through regulations that protect their local monopolies and duopolies, stifle new entrants and competitive technologies in the marketplace, and increase their control over the content that travels over the Web.
It’s only recently that the well-heeled phone and cable lobby have been beaten back by a well-organized public. We are coming together in increasing numbers to see that these special interests are not allowed to set Internet policy for the nation.
The Internet’s true greatness lies in those of us who use its level playing field to challenge the status quo, create and share new innovation and ideas, take part in our democracy and connect with others around the world — without permission from any gatekeepers.
As we continue to mobilize to save the Internet, Washington should start to follow the public’s lead. Change may be on the horizon for American politics, and this recent FCC decision may have offered up our first glimpse.
