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Article: Virtual commons. (the Internet as a common domain for communication)
- Article from:
- Whole Earth
- Article date:
- September 22, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Point Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It's hard to say much new about the Internet as commons -- we've all blabbed ourselves nearly to death on this topic in the last four or five years. Here's the summary, as I see it:
The Internet is the only commons that now enjoys support from the whole political spectrum, including the farthest right. "Technology' is our only universally safe code word for collective caring for the future, oddly enough. You can find nutcases who advocate privatizing the roads, the water, the military, but the Net is still sacred.
The Internet fails as a commons in the sense that you can't fully get away from it. A commons implicitly defines that which is not part of ...