Is it just me or is the Internet kicking ass these days?

[Arugula Latte]

Do the rest of you feel, as I do, that the Internet has made a huge difference in several positive developments over the last half year of so, including:

-- the Diebold voting machine story getting out

-- the (partial) re-awakening of (a portion) of the press

-- the legs on the uranium story

-- the huge opposition to the FCC ruling, which we have a chance at, if not overturning, then lessening its evil reach

-- the rise of candidate Dean (obvious one there)...

-- the huge, very-quickly organized opposition to the Iraq War

Others?

[FoxNewsIsTheDevil]

1. The internet is becoming a very important tool for the left.

[LoZoccolo]

2. I was just wondering this morning...

...when the fascists are going to start doing something about it. And what would it be?

[mrsteve]

10. They'll just coopt the internet with business

Here's from an article I posted the other day in Editorials (and like many Editorials, it disappeared without a ripple x( ). Here's some good paragraphs:

"The Net's problem, from telco and cable industries' perspective, is it was born without a business model. Its standards and protocols imagine no coercive regime to require payment--no metering, no service levels, no charges for levels of bandwidth. Worse, it was designed as an end-to-end system, where all the power to create, distribute and consume are located at the ends of the system and not in the middle. In the words of David Eisenberg the Internet's innards purposefully were kept "stupid". All the intelligence properly belonged at the ends. As a pure end-to-end system, the Net also was made to be symmetrical. It wasn't supposed to be like TV, with fat content flowing in only one direction.

The Net's end-to-end nature is so severely anathema to cable and telco companies that they have done everything they can to make the Net as controlled and asymmetrical as possible. They want the Net to be more like television, and to a significant degree, they've succeeded. Most DSL and cable broadband customers take it for granted that downstream speeds are faster than upstream speeds, that they can't operate servers out of their houses and that the only e-mail addresses they can use are ones that end with the name of their telephone or cable company."

Who Owns What?

Once business fully controls the internet, then it becomes just as easily manipulated as TV.

[Athlien]

3. Yep, the internet is great.

If nothing else, I love the internet for providing an effective means of communication between like minds. Even though I don't often de-lurk here on DU, this place rocks, and the very fact of its existence brings me up out of my political blues far more often than I'd like to admit. Information has always been a vital commodity - the more information which flows and the wider and clearer the channels for it to flow along, the better.

[calimary]

8. Hey, Athlien! Welcome to DU!

Glad you're here and I notice by your post that you find comfort, support, sympathy, and solidarity here the same way I do. This place keeps ME sane, too, and I've turned to it on MANY a dark day.

[Athlien]

12. Thanks for the welcome, calimary!

*smiles* Thanks for the warm welcome. I've been here for ages, actually, but I suffer from serious "it's been said before and better" syndrome, so I usually don't post. This place keeps me as sane as I'm likely to be, though, with the current state of the world. This is one of the few places online or off that I can turn to when I'm gripped by despair. I only wish that the despair squid wasn't striking me quite so often these days.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi athlien!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[On the Road]

4. Oh, I Thought You Were Talking about Speed

and I would have had to say NO!.

But yes, this is a new paradigm, and it's in our favor. It may not happen all at once, but good uncovered stories will get the attention of popular bloggers like Josh Marshall or Salon columnists and then get exposure to the major players. Very good development -- thank you, Al.

[althecat]

5. The Internet is Grand even...

On your final point there is a lengthy treatise about Scoops Internet War here...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0304/S00223.htm

To wit..

"But while the mainstream media may have served us appallingly badly, the fact that I am able to stand here and tell you all that I have today is proof positive that something in the media melee is still working.

And that something in my view is the Internet.

The Internet is populated by an army of independent writers, editors and reporters. While they are working completely without formal coordination and largely without remuneration they have done an absolutely remarkable job of providing a force of opposition in the information war just experienced.

It seems as though within hours of any significant piece of misinformation appearing someone has written a well researched and referenced column as a counter. Significant in enabling this to happen has been the remarkable development in the effectiveness of search engines. This means that it is possible to immediately, on reading a piece like Judith Miller's about the WMD Fairy, find out a considerable amount of information about her background.

And while online audiences are relatively small in straight numerical terms, I suspect they are far more influential than they look. For while the general public may not get their news off the Internet many journalists, politicians, defence analysts, PR people and public servants do, and the networked nature of the internet enables the important information in the morass to be filtered and distributed extremely quickly.

Even among the public at large the fact that 11 million people turned up to peace demonstrations on February 15th is proof positive of the power of the Internet as a co-ordinating tool. It can be safely assumed that very few of those marchers were coordinated with the assistance of the mainstream media."

[MODemocrat]

6. I definitely see a difference for the better

Since I've gotten access to the Internet, my eyes have really been opened; in fact, I can hardly even read my local paper (being the
Kansas City Star.)

[madmax]

7. I think so

Even more important is how much more information people can find as opposed to say 10 years ago. Not having grown up with computers in my day I find it to be a valuable tool. What an education!!! And you DU'ers are great teachers :)

[Kolesar]

9. More Broadband will help

Use of broadband ISPs is expanding. It would be nice if people could get their newscasts and visuals from the portal of their choice, instead of depending upon the broadcast and cable tv networks.

[DUreader]

11. I am Still NOT Convinced. The Same Thing SEEMED to be Happening Last Year.

Remember BUSH KNEW? CONDI AND BUSH LIED ABOUT 911?

HARKEN HALLIBURTON etc.

ANd then August came around and it was IRAQ, WMD , Nukular, Terra-lert

Etc. As the Whore Media Showed their colors again

[Raster]

13. The Revolution will NOT be televised....

...however, it will be available in its entirety via the Internet.

Long Live the Net!!! No Regulation!!!
The Net is truly power of, for and by the people.

The "media"--television, radio, print--is controlled by rich, old, white men with an agenda, THEIR AGENDA!

[althecat]

15. jdolsen nails it...

But lets hope it is televised... what's on the telly now.. and what time is it there. It's midday Sunday here.

[G_j]

16. I was also impressed

with the stir we created over Rumsfeld's draftees being "of know value" remark.