The future of the web?
Found this at I Power, via UX Magazine. A scary thought to be sure, but certainly a plausable direction for big media and telecom to want to go.
While there are some who ask what the future of the web looks like - and issues around accessible sites, semantic content, open source and the like are hugely important - it’s crucial to focus on the issues that will affect the most people in the most significant ways.
Whether you can see your favourite web site on both your phone and laptop isn’t nearly as important as whether you can access it in the first place. And, what about the right to your own digital media to use - legally - as you see fit. Big media is losing its grip on what it spoonfeeds you, and can charge you for, and as such, many of its revenue streams. An easy way to get them back is to package the content you can see with broadband access.
It’s an easy model for them because, as alluded to in the video above, it’s exactly the same model employed for digital cable. That’s why transparent public consultation on ACTA, and absolute net neutrality are two key things that should be on everyone’s front burner.
In my mind, the two issues are intrinsically connected. ACTA would ostensibly help media controlled bandwidth to throttle what they don’t want to give you access to, and to ensure they enforce licensing fees for every little bit of pay-for-use content they can.