| Internet Revolucion
by Great Orion Voyager © 2009 thorkorps The Internet is an essential public resource, developed by the public sector, stolen by the private sector. Control and access of the Internet is far too important to be given to corporations. It is time to return this essential public resource back to the public sector. Public Internet Access is essential to break the chains of global corporate pirates. Public Internet Access must be free and available to everyone. The Internet was developed by public universities. Now Microsoft, AOL, AT&T, Qwest, Comcast and other global corporations have staked claims on our public resource. Global corporations want to ruin the Internet by privatizing access, limiting content and flooding it with advertising. Privatization is piracy. Corporate pirates must give up their illegitimate claims to this essential public resource. We must not allow corporate pirates to ruin the Internet as they ruined radio and TV. PUBLIC UNIVERSITY: In 2000, many public universities offered public internet access in campus libraries. As internet access computers were made public, belligerent bums poured onto campus to play online poker and view online porn. Campus security was overwhelmed by an army of stinking hobos who mistook these public computers as some sort of welfare entitlement. Librarians failed to segregate bums from the rest of the public, so they simply gave up and got rid of all public access. In 2000, University of Washington Seattle had almost 100 public internet access computers, many without time limits. Today, UW has barely one dozen, limited to one hour, and in the summer and interim sessions after 5PM when workers need access, there is no public internet access at all. Today there is huge UNMET NEED for public internet access computers. As neocons gut the tax base to privatize the public sector, universities claim their budgets can no longer afford public computers. Public internet access at universities may continue to shrink and disappear. Due to the unresolved security issue of failing to segregate belligerent bums from the rest of the public, there may be little support for public access among campus librarians. "Good riddance!" librarians shrug, even as the public is denied this essential public resource. PUBLIC LIBRARY: As UNMET NEED of public internet access increases, public libraries are slowly offering more internet computers. But public libraries are hobbled by budget fiascos as neocons gut the tax base to privatize the public sector. Public internet access is woefully inadequate: In a city that requires 2,000 public internet access computers, the public library offers only 20. UNMET NEED is vast and growing. Public libraries suffer a security crisis as belligerent bums use every computer every day. Public librarians suffer in silence as they watch their public internet room devolve into a filthy stinking hobo camp. Librarians hate to admit this depressing fact, but the library serves these bums far more than anyone else. Visit any city library as it opens, and see who is waiting to get in: Belligerent bums, stinking hobos, unemployable parolees, filthy drunks, drug addicts, junkies, crackheads, meth-tweakers, glue-sniffers and shrieking psychos stand outside the library with their backpacks, waiting for the doors to open at 10:00. They pour in shoving, cursing, spitting, threatening, and head right to the men's restrooms. By 10:10, every stall in every men's restroom is occupied by bums. Visit the public library in any suburb: Bums, drunks and psychos use every computer every day. See the soccer mom escort her ten-year-old daughter as she asks to use internet access for the first time: The librarian points to the shrieking psycho humped over a keyboard rubbing himself as he views online porn: "Well our internet computers are over there!" Soccer mom's eye widen as she covers her daughter's eyes, barely able to utter: "You gotta be kidding ahhhh we'll just use our computer at home so long!" Soccer mom runs out the door with her daughter, trying not to touch anything, feeling soiled. You'll never see soccer mom or her daughter visit a public library again. To them, public libraries are a huge waste of tax funds that serve bums, and only bums. To attract Voluntary Patrons, we must get rid of these bums, drunks and psychos. Segregate them far away from the virtuous public. There should be two public internet access floors: a top floor for good citizens and kids, and a basement for bums, drunks and psychos. Roving security patrols can ensure that bums stay in their basement. Segregation is essential: We must not allow bums to take over this resource, no more than we allow corporations to steal this resource. WORKSOURCE: Worksource is an essential state employment office that offers free internet and free local phones to find jobs. Gone are the days when you could just clip a want-ad, visit an employer on site, and get hired same day. Now almost no employer will consider hiring you until you email a resume and submit an online application. Much of what these online applications require are gross violations of your privacy, including your "10-year housing history," income history, credit history, bank account info, social security number, birth name, birthplace, and reference phones even before your interview. All this is handed to some mysterious third party that runs a "background check" then sells your identity to the highest bidder anywhere in the world, without accountability. The ACLU is suing employers for such violation of privacy, but it may take a Supreme Court decision to restore our privacy rights. If you decline to fill out any one of these "mandatory data fields," your application is considered "incomplete," the system won't let you click "SUBMIT," and your application will never be read by anyone. Just one of these invasive online applications can take hours to fill out. If you cannot afford home internet, you cannot apply for a job these days, since most public libraries limit internet access to one hour per day, not enough time for even one application. Worksource staff battle bums, drunks and parolees who constantly try to violate Worksource policy of using the internet "FOR JOB SEARCH ONLY." Bums, drunks and parolees use Worksource computers to view online porn, play online poker, and visit whatever websites internet filters fail to block. To prevent bums from visiting non-employer websites, Worksource internet filters are often set at such a high security level, they block legitimate employer websites. Worksource internet access is essential for millions who cannot afford home internet. Yet Worksource is not enough: In a city that may need 2,000 public internet computers, Worksource may offer only 20 computers. UNMET NEED is so great that many Worksource offices limit your access to two hours per day. Worksource needs hundreds more internet computers to address huge UNMET NEED. It is intolerably inefficient to limit a job-seeker to two hours per day. You need dozens of hours of internet access to land any job these days. PUBLIC INTERNET ACCESS: Millions cannot afford private Internet Service Provider fees. It is time to make the internet public, as it was designed by public universities to be public. We should access the internet at rates much cheaper than offered by private corporations: Local governments must take over. Removing the profit motive would cut internet access fees in half, or more. Instead of Comcast or AT&T or Qwest screwing you out of $60 per month, you should pay your local government $10 per month for the same high-speed access. INTERNET CAFÉ: Internet cafes are thriving throughout every major city on earth, except in America. In China and Asia, countless internet cafes are practically free. European cities now enjoy more cybercafes than any American city. When I lived in Buenos Aires I was amazed to see the "Locutorio Telecom" on just about every corner. They charge 2 pesos per hour, or about US$0.60 per hour. We need $1 per hour internet cafes on every corner in every city in America. US$1.00 per hour is roughly the price of internet access throughout the world. Affordable internet cafes are now an essential public resource in every city on earth for billions who need internet access but cannot afford private home internet fees. Internet cafes around the world are healthy, thriving, fashionable, popular community centers. America must catch up with the rest of the world. Noam Chomsky, UNDERSTANDING POWER, 2002, pp 276-279 "You might ask why popular movements in the United States have to look to small community radio stations to get programming. Why doesn’t mainstream radio do that? Well in every major country in the world, radio was turned into a public forum. The United States went the other way; here radio was privatized, put into private hands.... When television came along in the 1940’s, there wasn't even a battle for it—it was just completely handed over to private power. I think the internet is going to be the same basic story: If it's put into the hands of private power, we know exactly how it’s going to turn out: It'll be used as another technique for control, and for keeping people in their role as mindless consumers." |