Journal Journal: I seem to have lost my revolution, have you seen it?
Let me start with the disclaimer. Im going to share my thoghts, you have every right in the world not to listen. If you are such to be taken with boredom or offence please look elsewhere.
(Something tells me I should save that for all of my journal entries)
It was the best of times, but who knows when it was THE best. I personally remember the pre-commercial network days, back before the "world wide web", e-shopping, and one-click (and many filed) patents. IRC ruled. People were flamebait for talking in what became 31337, and believe it or not grammer, satan, and (for some reason) Hitler were common subjects.
(alt.barney.die.die.die and alt.sadistic.dentists.drill.drill.drill)
Noone I knew took the communication possibilities of the network seriously, and a culture formed to consume that communication. It was fast and loose with concepts of being "morally supperior". Wild ideas of "free", "unbiased", "uninhibited"
(What happened to the optimism of those days? Have we gotten to be the stodgy people we once hated? )
I was told about a time before mine, about code and "building" the network. When email came out. when IRC, MUDS/MUSH/MUC/MUSE, etc were made. WWIV was a valid software name.
(Do you remember space die-nasty and FIDO-net?)
The internet "opened" up, not too unlike a grand opening of a walmart or warehouse discount store. While there was much "educating" of A.O.HELL users , the community adapted to allow them in. Chat-rooms, WWW, Email by the millions, and
(computers came to life with REALLY spiffy graphics - remember the Amiga?)
Its hard to say if it was a revolution, or a revelation. That people can push the bounds of their beliefs if they are exposed to more information and less persuasion. There were just begining to be ANY commercials, and generally you had to opt in.
The information that was available was VAST. The slippery slope was still uphill, and the terrorists handbook, and poor man james bond were interesting reading.
I admit I was slow to move into the commercial computer world, buying my way up from an old 8086 with Dos 6.22 for a PII with Win98. When I decided that Win98 was indeed as bad as I thought it was, I found the revolution again with OSS. Much change had been made to the Tao, but it had all the cultural elements and freedoms.
Where has this heritage gone? I admit that I contributed nothing, but I have watched slashdot for a few years. I notice that the more buisness we accept (as netizens and OSS advocates) and the more mainstream we allow ourselves to become. The less we remember of the heritage. While I am not in danger of leaving, It seems like we have started focusing on the hardware, commercialism, rights and legality of all that we stand for more than the culture itself.
Where has the revolution/revelation gone? Why have we stoped innovating the IT culture? Was it such a setback within the dot bomb that we give up and assimilate into what culture that is left? Have our Guru's decided the smell of trees and flowers are better than the smell of doritos n' coke?
The net was built by those who thought of "something better", and the will to put that plan into action. This Tao is much more than just the production of the code.
I grew up on the net. From early days with a 300 baud modem and a 8-bit machine with 16k memory (when I was about 8). Perhaps I am too old in the ways of the Tao to understand the new enlightenment, though too young to be old in anyother way. I seem to have misplaced my revolution.
Kei
