Got eNtireNet

Spanish start-up Whisher promises free Wi-Fi for all - A small Spanish start-up called Whisher is thumbing its nose at U.S. broadband providers as it prepares to launch a new service [... USA Today]

It's time we reconsider the Internet. Sure, information moves as free as the wind across the Internet; access to the Internet, however, is not fairly provided. Access requires subscription, and subscriptions are biased to several conditions — the most apparent are budget, location, and censorship.

While other biases affront empowerment, the enumerated (above) are oppressive.

Preferential appointment of Internet bandwidth to fiscally advantaged subscribers is foolish. That policy serves widening economic disparity. Our world economic health depends on flow of information; by controlling the rate and availability of information flow, service providers hurt economies. Provisions in deference of budget punish low-income populations with reduced capacity for abating impoverishment while affording affluent populations more opportunity for increase.

Sufficient funding is not the only barrier to utilizing Internet potential. When located away from dense population, subscribers have fewer options to Internet access. Modem access by telephone is almost universally available, but that access is inadequate for useful Internet. The Internet begins to be useful at quadruple the best bit-rates available through telephone lines. Significant efforts are making better Internet access available at increasingly remote US locations, but available bit-rates are often limited to just double that of telephone facility.

The most protested bias seems censorship. Manifestations of Internet censorship are diverse and ubiquitous. Sovereign censorship ranges from institutional and household regulation to national and international control. Regardless of scope, all censorship has the same net result: reduced (even wrong, and discrediting) information results in limited understanding.

Let's enumerate Internet potential. I consider VoIP as one significant utility; my telephone costs are 20% of my earlier service. I can communicate through web sites like this one to millions of people and never buy postage. Dictionaries are available after the public library closes. Internet archives often provide ideas for variety at dinner time. Appropriate travel choices are aided research from the Internet. These are just a few benefits.

Many, less public, benefits are afforded with Internet technology. Home and office monitoring are possible with the Internet. E-mail is my most often-used method of communication — and that's after I discount unsolicited communications. Documents and collaborative work can be shared around the globe, faster than their printed equivalent can be filed in a cabinet. All of this is currently available to Internet users; imagine how much more use the Internet has yet to reveal.

I must note that much of the Internet is bogus or not useful — to me. I should also note that I have broadband service always at my disposal. I am not embittered for my limitation; rather, I speak out that Internet access should be provided for the benefit of all. I consider accounts of forced servitude and abuse embarrassing evidence of human ignorance (even wasteful of Internet bandwidth and data store), but I can not justify anyone's restricted review of that embarrassment. The same applies to solitary adult entertainment or anything that I might consider wasted time — no one rightfully controls another's pursuits.