Oct 27 2005
Politics of the Web
I don’t talk politics much, either on the blog or in the real world. I feel that most political situations are too complex for easy summation and judgement. The current fight between the US and the rest of the world for control of the Internet is another example of that.
(Long rant follows. I figured you can read the rest of it in the extended entry if you’re interested)
Let’s face it, America created the Internet. Not Al Gore personally, and we weren’t the only only ones to contribute to it, but the Web is definitely an idea that only came to fruition because of the US government and American consumerism. And we’ve done a pretty good job of managing it so far.
But the Intrnet is no longer a purely American phenomenon, nor has it been for quite some time. Like many Americans, I forget to time to time that though I write this sitting comfortably in my home in California, I have people in France, Germany, Greece, Italy and more than 50 other countries who stop by for a visit once and a while. And over the next decade, I project that America will stop being the center of the Internet, if we aren’t already. China may well have taken that central role despite themselves.
But as the European Union and other countries fight to take control away from the US, I have to wonder if they can do any better than we have with the Internet. I’m not a big fan of President Bush and the current adminstration, but one thing I think they’ve don right is keep their hands off of the Internet. Mostly because they’ve had bigger fish to fry, but I’ll take what I can get.
I’m not sure that other governments will be able to follow our example and let the Internet be run by the technophiles as it has been so far. With a few exceptions, most of the real decisions about how the ‘Net has been run so far have been based on the technical needs, not the political expediency of the administration. And I have a feeling that would change quickly if other governments took over, if for no other reason than to remove some of the US’s fingerprints.
Viviane Reding is, to me, an example of what I’m afraid of. She’s not pushing for the globalization for the Internet because of a technical need to help the world. Rather, it’s a political agenda that gets her name in the paper, and feeds on the current anti-US fuel prevalent in Europe. She’s not a technical person concerned with making the Internet work; she’s a politician worried about the next step in her career.
One of the other things that’s different between the US and the rest of the world is our focus. Quite frankly, the United States is a country that focuses almost entirely on results. That’s the nature of commercialism. Most of the rest of the world, in contrast, is much more concerned with processes and doing things the proper way. It’s kind of like the difference between an adolescent and a mature adult. Both world views have a place, but I believe the Internet is still young enough that we have to be worried getting results, the processes can come later when we’ve a better idea of what this baby’s really capable of.
The Internet is still a new toy. Most of us don’t know where it will be next month, let alone five years from now. I don’t want to see all that potential to start getting bogged down by international politics and partisanism. We still need to make decisions based on technical merit, not on political expediencies. The Internet needs to remain a technocracy a while longer.
Should the US start giving up some control? Despite all my misgivings, I believe the answer is yes. But we need to so in a way that will maintain the autonomy that the Internet has had from our own government. China is the perfect example of what we can’t allow to happen to the Internet; blatant censorship and arrests based on the sites people have visited. Unluckily, I also believe that the current administration is too reluctant to loosen their grip on anything to reach a compromise. The EU and the rest of the world are going to get more frustrated until they either take control away from the US or come up with their own version of the Internet. And leave the US out of it.