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The Assimilation of the Internet

A recent Rough Type Blog entry, “The old-world internet,” quotes from Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte:

…digital technology can be a natural force drawing people into greater world harmony…

Rough Type goes on to counter the Negroponte brave new world:

…the internet will come to be carved up along traditional geographic lines and that, in fact, this process is already well advanced…

In the rasx() context, what is more accurate is to use the words ‘traditional political boundaries’ instead of “traditional geographic lines.” Karl Christian Rove might go down in history as one of the first prominent Imperial authority figures who really “got” digital technology—especially information technology. (Am I forgetting about Webby Award winner Al Gore?) His adept use of databases and data gathering using “personal” digital technology should be seen as an innovation that will be imitated and improved upon by the powers that be.

So according to the Frontline documentary, The Architect, Karl Rove defines people who drive Volvos and go to Yoga class as people who do not support Bush. Wake up folks! This is a political boundary—not a geographic line.

It is promising to see more “main stream” technology people writing about this topic. This information (which is distinguished from opinion) should influence more tech folks who consider themselves “liberal” or “progressive” to stop rendering rosy pixilated pictures of closing “the digital divide” to permit the ‘less fortunate’ to romp freely in Negroponte’s brave new fictional world.

This Blog entry will close with a quote from Floyd Webb in “The World Wide Floyd Webb” recorded back in 2000:

Computer centers open up in Black communities. They teach clerical skills… Word, Excel—all geared to serving others or “skills to git a job.” Programming is the key training that is needed: C++, Java, game designing, animating…

Do you see the ‘traditional political boundaries’ in brave new technological ventures for people “of color”? Are you excited about Alex Lindsay’s vision in “The Next Generation of Digital Craftsman”—or do you see digital sweatshop workers in Zimbabwe cleaning frames upon frames of green-screen pixels all day?

rasx()