did anyone else know we have to save the internet?

Right now I’m working on this assignment while also using the internet for various things – I’m looking for information for this post, checking emails, and chatting on MSN. I know I’ve already talked about multitasking, but I’m this post is about something different. I am going to focus on the fact that I am able to do all of stuff on the internet without worrying about not being able to access certain sites or having to wait a long time for pages to load.
I got the idea for this post way back in the second week of classes when we were talking about Net Neutrality and savetheinternet.com. I didn’t know a whole lot about net neutrality so I went to the save the internet site and looked at their FAQ to see what they had to say. They define Network Neutrality as:

Network Neutrality -- or "Net Neutrality" for short -- is the guiding principle
that preserves the free and open Internet.
Put simply, Net Neutrality means
no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking,
speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or
destination.

Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.
These are things that we take for granted when we’re using the internet. We assume that we are able to access any site whenever we want in a timely manner (providing we don’t have the dreaded dial up…really don’t miss that!). Now, the potential loss of Net Neutrality appears to only be an issue in the United States, but imagine that this could affect us in Canada too. Savetheinternet.com is trying to make sure that major corporations don’t manipulate the internet so consumers have to wait for some pages to load but not others and not access certain sites at all. Content providers would be taxed to “guarantee speedy delivery of their data.” This would make the major corporations make even more money (when they clearly are not lacking) and would discriminate against the smaller websites.
If those smaller sites are not able to afford the high speed that the corporations are demanding then they will slowly die out, which would be incredibly detrimental to blogging and other forms of citizen media. A lot of activist sites probably wouldn’t be accessed because no one would want to wait a long time just to view a page. Just think of all the information that would not be disseminated just because major corporations are being greedy. Do they honestly think they need to essentially tax one more thing? I’m glad that Net Neutrality hasn’t been eliminated yet (as far as I could tell) but I can’t believe that there is actually a possibility for this to happen. Actually, you know what? I’m not that surprised. Think about all the other things that we have to pay for already – telephone, cable television – it wasn’t always like that. Hidden fees (and not so hidden fees) are the way that these companies make money and they don’t care if it gouges the average user.
I suppose if I try hard enough I can understand the major corporation’s point of view, I mean everyone wants to get ahead, but I don’t think that it should be at the cost of others. We need those smaller sites to get the information that the mainstream media and government aren’t telling us. If Net Neutrality becomes extinct then there’s a good chance we could become even more sheep-like and not be able to check other sources for varying positions. If you check out this part of the savetheinternet.com site you will see what’s already been done to censor what we see or are able to access online. Do we really want any more restrictions than these, which are all sneaky and underhanded attempts at major corporations to keep conflicting ideas at bay?
I really hope that the corporations who want to get rid of Net Neutrality will not succeed. Can you imagine the life we would have if we were not able to access the information we wanted when we wanted to? I think this is a story worth keeping an eye on, especially if it ever makes it into Canada. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.


Most of the information in this post came from the savetheinternet.com FAQ page. Check it out and look around the rest of the site too, it’s really interesting.

What is Hacktivism?

Since I am in my fourth year of communication studies, I have encountered the term “hacktivism” before. However, I never really paid attention to what it really meant. Wikipedia defines it well, and in a way that pretty much anyone should be able to understand while also making sure both sides of the controversy are explored. For those of you who don’t feel like following the link, hacktivism is basically the idea of taking the technology used in hacking and applying it for political ends. Hacking is usually a sticky term to discuss, as most people have a very negative idea of it even though that was not always the intention. Hackers are skilled in technology and originally were using that skill to get around the rules the administration (whatever you want to define that as - the government, the media, the "man") put into place. They had ethics that they recognized as they, like Spiderman, knew that with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately the new generation of hackers do not follow those ethics (I guess you could say they’re like the evil Spiderman in the third movie) and that is why there hackers are now cast in such a negative light.
When I was looking on the hackbloc.org website the first thing that caught my eye was the title graphic, with the three different types of font and the caption “Exploit code, not people.” I think that four word phrase should define the entire hacktivism movement. I agree with hackbloc when they say that the whole point of the movement is to “use the technology in a way that is liberating” (as hackbloc describes it on their site). I don’t think that exposing personal information about someone is going to make a very good point, but showing in another way that you can get in and obtain that information is important for hacktivism.
I think that the hackbloc website does an excellent job of balancing technical info, like codes and whatnot, with issues that the average internet user has to encounter. Just on the front page for example, I skimmed the articles about making the site more secure, but read in depth about Facebook and how nothing is really as private as you think.
From just a few pages of the posts on the front page, I got a small sense of what exactly hacktivism is, as defined by hackbloc. They do have their mission up at the top which helps you realize why the articles that are posted are important. Hactivists want free information, internet and society, which comes across in the stories about Facebook and other stories about sites being hacked into.
I feel as though there is sort of disconnect between some of the stories. Even though they are well balanced in regards of technical and mainstream stories, which I appreciate, I think that it may go against the types of readers they want to attract. I think that the main visitors to this site would be those who are educated in hacktivism and have the skills to carry out the technological aspects of the movement. I also think that having stories from mainstream news sites (such as the one from myfoxny.com ) could detract from the independence (in my opinion) of the site.
Everyone is going to have their own opinions on things, which I think is good when it comes to a site like this. Having many people be able to post stories should help everyone else keep an open mind about things.
Overall I think hackbloc does an excellent job of following their mission. They’re not the scary, misguided hackers who want to screw with the world and major corporations. These people feel as though they have a duty to the public to make sure that the technological world that we live in is safe and secure. Those groups who choose to screw with us are going to be the ones that hackbloc targets, on our behalf.