Week 3’s readings were two different approaches to discussing the importance of the rise of digital technology. John Perry Barlow’s piece “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” reads like a letter to the “Governments of the Industrial World”, explaining that they are not welcome among us; the digital generation. I can appreciate the bluntness of this opening statement. Cyberspace should be free of governmental rules and regulations. I interpret this reading as being directed at all captains of industry afraid of the changes these advances in technology will bring. I like how Barlow put it: “You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants” (1996). This declaration basically informs our technically illiterate leaders that we have created our own world free of their control. “In our world, whatever the human mind may create can be reproduced and distributed infinitely at no cost. The global conveyance of thought no longer requires your factories to accomplish” (Barlow, J 1996). What I find really amazing is that Barlow wrote this in 1996. His words still have an impact 15 years on; granted the people this piece is aimed at have since realized how right he is and made the effort to join the digital age.
While Barlow’s reading was a sort of a screw you to less-than-tech-savvy people of the world, Kevin Kelly’s introduction to “New Rules for the New Economy” provides important information and guidelines for them to adapt to the new digital world. Kelly compares the new “soft world” to the old ways of the “hard world”. “If you want to envision where the future of your industry will be, imagine it as a business built entirely around the soft, even if at this point you see it based in the hard” (Kelly, K 1999). I found it interesting to read about the times when General Motors was the biggest company in world and everyone believed that in the future, every company would be like GM. Since then, GM have crumbled and companies like Microsoft, (and more recently) Google and Facebook have prevailed. Kelly refers to the internet as the business hero of this moment (1996) and answers a pretty important question - “Why is it so much more important than its recent predecessors?” He gives what I believe to be a bold and very true answer – “Communication—which in the end is what the digital technology and media are all about—is not just a sector of the economy. Communication is the economy” (1999).
References
Kelly, K. (1999) 'This new economy'. In New Rules for the new Economy. [URL: http://www.kk.org/newrules/newrules-intro.html]
Barlow, J.P. (1996) A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace [URL: https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html]
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I understand what barlow is saying and i agree inpart with what he is saying. However without any order or control, anarchy and chaos usually follow. The level of control vs the level of freedom needs to be balanced. As to what that balance is i can not answer.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I wonder though if the impetus for the development of technology, communication and the network culture did come from the captains of industry or whether they were only supplying the means for what was culturally already being demanded. One side of technology seems constantly to escape the rules and constraints of government and provide us the means to challenge this authority. But then technology is also what censors and constrains the internet in China for example. I wonder how censored the internet in Australia is?
ReplyDeleteCheers :)
I think the Internet is censored in Australia to certain degree. The laws of the nation still need to abide d by.
ReplyDeleteI guess it goes back to the Governments lack of control.
I understand the Government would like to increase censorship over the internet.