Re:Great idea... (Score 1)

While some big-hitters have signed up to the Net Neutrality Squad and while such a squad will keep the issue of net neutrality alive, it does have a negative impact because it reinforces, once again, the existing paradigm of corporate-controlled media. Once again the idea that all we can do as users is to monitor and protest every time the corporate-owned media tramples on our freedoms is also reinforced.

This play nicely into the hands of the corporate media executives who may be momentarily embarrassed by being caught out but know that all takes is a little spin and a little time and before long we back to the status quo. Does anyone really believe the corporations will actually reform as a result of such exposure? Or will they redouble their efforts at masking their actions so they are not as easily discovered in the future? This is nothing sinister; it is how corporations work. Their only goal is to deliver the highest profits for their shareholders, and the control over the data that flows through their networks has the potential to deliver extraordinary profits.

While ever this economic incentive exists, corporations by their nature will do whatever it takes to achieve this aim. This includes pumping millions into lobbying to ensure any legislative threat is removed or minimized. That is why I don't hold out a lot of hope for the legislative approach.

If we are to save the Internet we need to shift the battleground by shifting the focus to the real problem and the real solution. The real problem is the corporate structure which is simply not suitable for the delivery of essential services. The corporate profit motive approach to mobilizing action works well in some instances, but it is increasingly being exposed as inadequate in essential services like health, and I argue in essential services like the Internet.

So what is the solution? It is emerging in initiatives like CUWiN (the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network) is a world-renowned coalition of wireless developers and community volunteers committed to providing low-cost, do-it-yourself, community-controlled alternatives to contemporary broadband models.

For just $499 you can buy a CUWin kit to start your own wireless mesh network in your area. But CUWiN is not the only option. Community networks are popping up everywhere exposing the real battleground. "The big telephone and cable companies are using their lobbying clout in Washington and the state capitals to outlaw municipal broadband systems, prevent competition and undercut local control."

FreePress.org started the Action Squad HQ with the aim of "fighting back against big corporations and their high-paid lobbyists and politicians by organizing to educate local elected officials and build networks in their communities." But the initiative is consigned to the back pages and seems to have stalled.

Why? Because it has hit the brick wall of the existing pervasive paradigm which places the corporation at the centre of society. What we need is not a Net Neutrality Squad, but a squad who sole objective is create the necessary paradigm shift by exposing the real problem and promoting the only viable solution: community-owned and community-operated Internet.