Recently members of our list have been having a discussion over what we should call ourselves in order to make ourselves better understood by the general public.
The term "Infrastructure Held Hostage" sounds obscure, some feel. What about "Information Held Hostage?" Bob Frankston notes that this takes us back 10 years, to the "Information Superhighway." It’s the pipes that pass information, the infrastructure, that’s being held, he asserts. And there’s a strong case to be made for that.
After many notes were exchanged, veteran entrepreneur Jeffrey Sterling of IXA offered the following, and it’s posted here with his permission:
What they are holding hostage is the infrastructure. What it is
affecting is our "digital future".
Bruce, I’m glad you said it so I wouldn’t have to be the first one. I
was thinking "digital future" too. Or perhaps our "digital economy". But
I’m afraid we are jumping ahead of the general public.
When all is said and done, I defer to Gordon of course, but today the
end game is open infrastructure. However we get there, that is the goal.
From that flows our new information/digital future/economy.
I’m as tired of this old fight as many of you must be, but until we’ve
got an open infrastructure platform we can count on for generations to
come, we’ve got to stick to the knitting.
-Jeff
PS: Not to get too complex but it is possible to reverse engineer
"infrastructure held hostage" by talking about our "digital future being
at risk". Why is our digital future at risk, because our digital
infrastructure is being held hostage. Of course, sub "information" for
"digital" if you like.
The lower stack would be the IP plumbers pushing up and the upper stack
would be the free media geeks pushing down.
IP Plumbers weapons of course: mesh and mush networks
Media Geeks weapons of course: bit torrent and blogs
How about “Left Behind?”
How about “Left Behind?”
Another reason to like “Left Behind” is you get ot co-opt a known entity. A tactic the right, and their built-in base the religious right, uses and knows very well.
Also a tactic the Bells use very well with their astroturf organizations.
Another reason to like “Left Behind” is you get ot co-opt a known entity. A tactic the right, and their built-in base the religious right, uses and knows very well.
Also a tactic the Bells use very well with their astroturf organizations.