Virtual Clampdown or Physical Revolution?

Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed Under Society |

Has anyone else noticed that the major search engines don’t seem to be working in quite the same way lately? I have mainly noticed it with G. but it sure isn’t limited to that engine, Yahoo and the few worthwhile others seem to have the same issue. Here’s the problem; when ever I search for a subject I am returned with results full of commercial or retail links. If on the off chance I am returned links relating to information it invariably links to Wikipedia - and whilst same may claim the Wiki to be ok - it is hardly authoritative. And besides, the Internet was never about centralisation of information…was it?

eBay recently banned the sale of ‘digital downloads’. A good portion of the eBay community are happy about this, as apparently eBay was full of ‘junk’ e-books. Yet there were a many individuals making a living from selling quality products such as audio, video and software they had created themselves - and even the few very worthwhile e-books. But eBay have their reasons - feedback manipulation, so the claim. I suspect there is far more to this, have we slowly been getting to the point were the individual can compete on ‘equal’ footing with the larger corporations? Digital downloads meant people no longer needed to rely on the large institutions to gain the ability to distribute their own creations. But things are changing…

A number of banks have issued debit / credit card readers for use in the home. This has been going on for a while - but we have just received ours. The device is a somewhat bulky pocket calculator into which you can insert your bank card. When you make a purchase online with your card - during the payment process you will be entered with a challenge code, you then have to use the ‘card reader’ to create a valid response code. Are these simply security measures? Or is it about limiting an individuals access on the Internet? After all, now I either need to carry this bulky card reader everywhere, or I can only make online purchases whilst at home…

Along with the constant media attacks on the likes of YouTube, and Government pressure on ISP’s to monitor all traffic which passes through then - this all seems to indicate a growing trend towards clampdown.

Yet there is hope as it seems much is indeed changing. There is a growing community of individuals which may eventually push the old antiquated methods of business out the way. As mentioned above; traditionally to get a book published an author need to rest on the whims of the publishing houses. To get an album released was a fight for the attention of the record labels. All that is changing with the likes of Lulu Press who have made self-publishing a whole new reality. The future of consumerism is going to be about ’self-publication’, we will all be buying each others products. If you have any talent in any area of creativity at all - then there is potential to make money.

Will the large corporate powers be happy about this?  No, I really don’t think they will be - and I suspect that is part of the ‘pressure’ eBay recieved about their virtual product distributions.  Yet as far as I see, this new beast is going to be unstoppable.  What will no doubt happen is that the corporations will adapt or die.  Ultimately they will have to start opening up to this new business model and become large scale ’self-publication’ houses.

What strikes me as funny about all this, is that as the corporations and governments are finally moving into locking down the virtual world, all the millions of people who have evolved through that virtual world are now moving out into the physical world and reshaping it with their virtual tools…

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Comments

One Response to “Virtual Clampdown or Physical Revolution?”

  1. johnblend on April 16th, 2008 4:59 pm

    Interesting thoughts.

    I wonder what would happen if there was a total shutdown of the net for some reason.(sunstorm etc) that I think would change the world in just a couple of months, lots of creative people with lots of accumulated knowledge. Nothing to do than playing with reality, becoming more active, instead of sending a angry emails to authorities - there will be angry humans knocking on their doors.

    Enjoying your blog as usual
    //john

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