Chris Grams

Happy Birthday opensource.com! Been awesome to watch this great site and community grow over the years. Thanks to Jeff, Jason, Jen and the whole opensource.com team for your leadership!

Marabiloso, sounds like you have strong opinions on this stuff, so I won't attempt to sway you otherwise. I do want to add a few thoughts to explain my statement in the post that the Internet is designed for freedom... I think you may have taken it differently than I intended.

What I meant by that is the fundamental design of the Internet was such that a piece of data could take multiple routes to get from its origin to its destination, rather than being restricted to one predetermined route; that, in my mind, gives it "freedom." While my understanding is this was originally designed in as a way of helping the network better deal with disasters or disruptions, it has led to a larger cultural effect, as I've articulated. The Wikipedia description of the Internet history does a nice job explaining the history behind some of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

Another article I'll point out that I think is cut from the same cloth... Douglas Rushkoff had a nice editorial on the CNN website yesterday about how the media is deeply misunderstanding the Wall Street protests and the motivations of the protesters:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/

From the article:

"What upsets banking's defenders and politicians alike is the refusal of this movement to state its terms or set its goals in the traditional language of campaigns.

That's because, unlike a political campaign designed to get some person in office and then close up shop (as in the election of Obama), this is not a movement with a traditional narrative arc. As the product of the decentralized networked-era culture, it is less about victory than sustainability. It is not about one-pointedness, but inclusion and groping toward consensus. It is not like a book; it is like the Internet."

Thanks for commenting!

best,

cdg