Belatedly, a poem by Albert Goldbarth, "Library." I don't think I found it on this list, but then again, if I did, pardon the repost:
http://poems.com/special_features/library.htm -- Pau On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 11:40 AM, marc garrett <[email protected] > wrote: > Hi Edward, > > Thanks for reading the post, > > I do agree with you that on-line communities offer resources which can > help those who wish to discover others who are either thinking or > creating in relational or similar contexts. like I said, the Internet is > under threat. > > "Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by > their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are > being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made > deals. Governments -- totalitarian and democratic alike -- are > monitoring people's online habits, endangering important human rights." > Berners-Lee. > > The larger sites/platforms like itunes is centralized and walled off. > The Murdoch Empire News International have already made invenstments > into walling off the Internet, specifically for Sky HD broadcasting. > Taking up mass bandwidth. > > "Giant providers want it privatized to "discriminate in favor of their > own search engines (while) slowing down or blocking services by their > competitors. (They're) spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying > Congress" and the FCC to defeat Net Neutrality and jeopardize the > Internet's future." The Struggle for Net Neutrality - > http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/11/struggle-for-net-neutrality.html > > Make no mistake: The free-flowing Internet as we know it could very well > become history. What does that mean? It means we could be headed toward > a pay-per-view Internet where Web sites have fees. It means we may have > to pay a network tax to run voice-over-the-Internet phones, use an > advanced search engine, or chat via Instant Messenger. The next > generation of inventions will be shut out of the top-tier service level. > Meanwhile, the network owners will rake in even greater profits. > > To me, getting rid of libraries and closing off the Internet to > independent or smaller communities are part of the same issue. A greedy > and intrusive effort by corporations only allowing people access to > information as paying consumers, rather than allowing people to have the > right find information and knowledge for free and on their own terms. > This is a neoliberal takeover... > > Wishing you well. > > marc > > > > Marc - > > > > That's a great post. > > > > I do think, however, that you can also get a sense of being in a > > learning community through online participation - I can remember my own > > sense of excitement and encouragement when I first started to join > > communities like WebArtery and TrAce online about ten years ago, and > > found that there were all sorts of other people out there interested in > > the same stuff I was just discovering myself. Furtherfield itself is now > > an enormously important resource in this respect. > > > > We'd better hope that this is the case, anyhow, because the library > > system is going to be decimated for sure in the next few years. One > > theme which keeps emerging strongly from a whole sequence of recent > > posts is the extent to which we are now re-living the experiences of the > > 1970s. It's not just the cutbacks, which Labour would have made as well: > > it's the extent to which the Tories are using the cutbacks as an excuse > > to dismantle the welfare state. What's happening in the NHS at the > > moment is really alarming. I keep hoping that an issue is going to come > > along which will split the coalition and thereby force a general > > election, but maybe it's not going to happen. > > > > - Edward > > _______________________________________________ > > NetBehaviour mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- ----- |(*,+,#,=)(#,=,*,+)(=,#,+,*)(+,*,=,#)| --- http://ignotus.com
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