In response to "The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500"
This article reflects the current “rules-of-engagement” where the individual is empowered through free web-services. I keep mulling over the scenario when economic squeeze may make free-memberships unsustainable, falling back on pay-for-service models (no free email, no free membership on social networking). However blasphemous this may sound, it may very well be the reality in a few years if the credit crunch takes too long to untangle. So the rules-of-engagement may change again to favor institutionalized content-generation. “Internet democracy” is fragile because it depends on infrastructure which is not yet controlled by individuals.
True internet democracy might happen when individuals generate and maintain hardware independent of big companies or government. It could be a distant fantasy, to imagine a Ham Internet like Ham radio. But not impossible.
Bottom line point: I’ll celebrate internet democracy when I run my part of the internet without the dependence on local infrastructure and those tech innovations are yet to come.
