roundtable: Re: conduit, content, and monopoly control

roundtable: Re: conduit, content, and monopoly control

Re: conduit, content, and monopoly control

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Mon, 18 Aug 1997 02:36:18 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 02:36:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <roundtable@cni.org>
Subject: Re: conduit, content, and monopoly control
In-Reply-To: <199708180112.VAA13229@okeefe.bestweb.net>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.96.970818021153.18522A-100000@access1.digex.net>


> I thank Richard for this VERY enlightening post. I especially agree that it
> is essential to consider what the telco's, etc., believe to be in their
> interest if you are going to try to predict their behaviour.

  Power and in particular the power of monopoly capitalism has its own
  logic and movement, as Richard has consistently concluded.  Prediction
  of telco behavior on that basis, namely, to enhance their own power
  and wealth continues to be a reasonable liklihood.  Ironically, that
  power is predicated upon convincing "the People" to act against their
  own interests, and therefore, has limits also shown by history.

  The basic question remains in defining those limits, or defeating the
  same by a salient recognition of the fools game now spinning out of
  control.  For example, there is nothing whatsoever except self-imposed
  constraint, to prevent the people from designing a Global Information
  Infrastructure (GII), which supports economic prosperity, social equity,
  and ecological integrity as mutually reinforcing goals.  This may look
  something like my own proposal or a variation thereof, which members of
  this list have seen often enough.

  The people may also organize themselves to support such a design and the
  assertion of that power could well be unvanquishable, there being no
  significant economic, technological, or organizational impediments to
  such a design.

  What this means is that the game is ours to win or loose, by recognizing
  or continuing to blindly deny the source of our misery--self-imposed
  constraint.

Vigdor


Vigdor Schreibman
<fins@access.digex.net>

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