[SGVLUG] Stiring the pot: online freedom ?

[matti]

Hi,

Global internet, yes.. however, for this framework
I need not go into the global issues, just
focus on the US and the services provided within
the US

> There is a way around this: run your own server -- "be
> your own city" as
> it were...

Yes, you can run our own server
i.e. be your own city

you can very well create a city which has
just a dirt road going to it, isn't on
many maps, has no friends/family living there,
has no jobs, has no community of the larger
cities, and is subjected to (as Tom points out)
to blockades once you start to attract 
significant visitors/residents.

but there still doesn't resolve the issues

what good is freedom of speech if none can hear you?

what good is freedom of assembly in a new town
where your friends/family/and everyone else is
not there (they're busy working in the coalmine town)?

what good is it when there are no maps available
on how to get to your town?
(i.e. blocked from the search engines,
links blocked at the various corporate towns)

> You might run into the issue of the "highway
> department" not keeping up
> the roadwork that leads to your "city" [or worse,
> setting up roadblocks
> and detours...]

the bottom line is that we need to be aware of
the potential for abuse of the system, and 
put into place (hate to say it) regulations 
which ensure "network neutrality" and some
sorts of rights allowing those in the corporate
towns to speech and assembly. ( i.e. "users
rights" )
[ imho the photo of the child smoking on flickr
should NOT have been removed... ]

yes, it's sort of like the coal towns, where
the conditions where so bad that the workers
wanted to strike - but the coal corporation
brought in trains armed with machine guns
to repress anyone seeking to have some basic
rights.

I think the parallels to the corporate town
is appropriate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

I found this interesting as a side note:
from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town

"One of the first company towns in the United States was 
Pullman, Chicago, developed in the 1880s just outside 
the Chicago city limits. The town, entirely company-owned, 
provided housing, markets, a library, churches and 
entertainment for the 6,000 company employees and 
an equal number of dependents. Employees were required 
to live in Pullman, despite the fact that cheaper 
rentals could be found in nearby communities. In 
1898 the Illinois Supreme Court required Pullman to 
dissolve their ownership of the town"

best
matti