Rushkoff Proposes We Fork the Internet

From Slashdot:

"Douglas Rushkoff: 'The moment the "net neutrality" debate began was the moment the net neutrality debate was lost. For once the fate of a network — its fairness, its rule set, its capacity for social or economic reformation — is in the hands of policymakers and the corporations funding them — that network loses its power to effect change. The mere fact that lawmakers and lobbyists now control the future of the net should be enough to turn us elsewhere.' And he goes on to suggest citizens fork the Internet & makes a call for ideas how to do that."

The problem is the Monopolies that are forming. (Score:3)

by John Sokol (109591) writes: on Tuesday January 04, @07:07PM (#34760346) Homepage Journal

Most of you don't know the history, and are therefor doomed to repeat it.
For much of my life I have spent fighting the Ma Bell / AT&T monopoly. From the monopolistic control over Unix to all long distance services, to hicap pipes.
It wasn't until there breakup in the 80's that direct physical connection of modems was even allowed on to the phone networks.
Well we are down to the last few companies controlling the last mile, and many of the backbones. Legislation will just further this till we are all locked down to a few Internet services and the rest will be squeezed out or severely hampered.
IP TV and Cable TV over IP will be the largest changes coming. And companies like Cox and AT&T find themselves in a conflict of Interest.
Providing last mile Internet while at the same time watching it eat away at their cash cow, cable TV.
I think we can provide a VPN like tunneling service across the public Internet over to a private network. Most corporations already do this for their employees.
Getting that last mile has always been the hard part.
We could then make this private network host content only available on that network, but would anyone want too?
I mean if you are going to invest in a web server you'd want it to be accessible to as many users as possible.
Still I have some ideas I may be willing to discuss with an NDA.
For an interesting read checkout my ecip.com

----------------------------------
 Burz (138833) writes: Alter Relationship on Wednesday January 05, @12:04PM (#34766352)

I think we can provide a VPN like tunneling service across the public Internet over to a private network. Most corporations already do this for their employees.

Getting that last mile has always been the hard part.

See I2P link below. It's completely decentralized so even if the creators wanted to compromise it, they couldn't. Addresses cannot be censored and end-to-end security is assured (unless you are using an outproxy to access regular Internet sites).
It isn't a speed-demon but its much faster than Tor and its friendly to P2P and general-purpose traffic.

--
I2P : Anonymous, quick network with built-in web, torrent [geti2p.net]

---------------------------------- 

by John Sokol (109591) writes: on Wednesday January 05, @01:30PM (#34767416) Homepage Journal 

 

I have thought about P2P based VPN like networks, but there are political/legal issues with that.
Without a "legal entity" in charge they can just block it. Also it's not possible to grow it as a real network.
By copying the private corporate network model your afforded some legal protections and if they where to block it, they would also have to block every major corporations VPN's that they use for there employees to telecommute.
Another nice benefit is that it would be considered a private network and therefor free of public scrutiny to some extent. So pirated content could be argued to be view completely differently then on the open internet.
In addition as a real physical network, other networks could join, and people could become directly physically connected. T1's etc.
There are some real advantages.
I am thinking that replacing the protocol though would be the strongest way to differential it. Not sure how viable that is though.
But it could be free of the current DNS IETF system.

 

The spoon

The spoon:  A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an organization.     Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, 'Steve's Place,' and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket.     It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.     Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, 'Why the spoon?'     'Well, 'he explained, 'the restaurant's owner hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all of our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently  dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.     If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.'     As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he replaced it with his spare.. 'I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now.' I was impressed.     I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly.     Looking around, I saw that all of the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, 'Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?'     'Oh, certainly!' Then he lowered his voice. 'Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also learned that we can save time in the restroom.     By tying this string to the tip of our you-know-what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39%.     I asked quietly, 'After you get it out, how do you put it back?'     'Well,' he whispered, 'I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon.'

Dear Sir/Madam Attached to this email is my proposal, kindly read through

Hello
I am Mr. Alfred Mzanzi, a member of Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP), South Africa. ICEP is charged with the responsibility of finding bank accounts in South Africa belonging to Non-South African indigenes, which have remained dormant since South African apartheid was resolved in 1994.

It may interest you to know that in July of 1997, the South African Reserve Bank published a list of dormant accounts originally opened by non- South African citizens.

These accounts had been dormant since the end of apartheid (27 April 1994). Most belonged to apartheid victims. The continuing efforts of the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP) have since resulted in the discovery of additional dormant accounts - 14,000 in December 1999. The published lists contain all types of dormant accounts, including interest-bearing savings accounts, securities accounts, safe deposit boxes, custody accounts, and non-interest-bearing transaction accounts. Numbered accounts are also included. Interest is paid on accounts that were interest bearing when established.

The Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) handles processing of all claims on accounts due to non-South African citizens. I discovered a dormant account of Walter Ackerman with a credit balance of US$ 45,000,000 (Forty Five Million United State dollars) plus accumulated interest. The beneficiary was murdered during the apartheid era, leaving no WILL and no possible records for trace of heirs.
The Claims Resolution Tribunal has been mandated to report all unclaimed funds for permanent closure of accounts and transfer of existing credit balance into the treasury of South African government as provided by the law for management of assets of deceased beneficiaries who died interstate (living no wills).

Being a top executive at ICEP, I have all secret details and necessary contacts for claim of the funds without any hitch. The funds will be banked in a Very Reliable Bank here in South African, safe heaven for funds and we can share the funds and use in investment of our choice. Due to the sensitive nature of my job, I need a foreigner to HELP claim the funds.

All that is required is for you to provide me with your details for processing of the necessary legal and administrative claim documents for transfer of the funds in your name. Kindly provide me with your full name, address, and telephone/fax. I will ensure all procedures to see that the fund is transferred to a secure, numbered account in your name here in South Africa, of which you will be capable of accessing the funds and transferring gradually to your country and other banks of our choice in the world. My share will be 75% and your share 25% percent of the total amount. THERE IS NO RISK INVOLVED.
The Claims Resolution Tribunal has put funds in Escrow awaiting submission of valid claims for necessary disbursement. I find myself privileged to have this information and this may be a great opportunity for a lifetime success without risks. Due to security reasons, reply to my private emails: alfredmzanzi400@luckymail.com call +27 71 038 1688
The reason why I choose South Africa is that they have one of the best Internet Account Facilities, whereby you can access the account online and make transfers online to your account in your country.
This transaction is not a Child’s Play and should not be treated as such, if you are capable then reply, if not delete from your Inbox.
Best Regards,

Alfred Mzanzi
Member (ICEP)
--------------------------------------

What a load of crap.

419 Eater - The largest scambaiting community on the planet!

Advance-fee fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigerian Email Scam Victim Sues Bank, Loses Appeal - Slashdot