Information commons

[ewt]

I wasn't very clear what I meant in this post.

So:

The practicalities of making internet access (or books, for that matter) free for a certain amount of public access are many and complex, however this does not mean that they should become facilities available only to those who have the money to pay for them.

Discuss.

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

At the time it was the only way for me to access my primary e-mail account

That's really quite unusual though, isn't it? I mean, the number of people with a unix account only accessible by ssh, but without either a home internet connection or an IT-job which provides such, that's extremely small, no? And even for that small number, it's a choice.

If we're providing the internet so people can apply for jobs and so on, they can always register a webmail account and use that (and pay to go on ssh once and e-mail all their contacts saying 'please use this for now').

even if reality dictates that if we're paying for it out of public funds we have to choose one or the other.

Ah well, if we're talking about what people should have for free regardless of what reality dictates, I'm off to the council offices to pick up my free lunch, antihistamines, and bicycle.