From: Lance
Re: Just Get Up And Go
Guys, I would just like to say Congratulations. Yesterday was the first time since the day this was born that all four of us posted something. I predicted Bukkake and you guys gave it to me...fuck that came out wrong.
I get jealous of Nazer sometimes when he talks about what he's doing in school because it's always interesting. In contrast, I know that what I'm learning is usually relatively boring and not something I want to post on the internet. I finally found something worth sharing though.
As most of you know, my major (as of now) is Informatics. Yeah yeah, I love making fun of how even I'm not even sure what it is, but without going into too much detail, it's the study of computer science, information technology (IT), and their effects on society. So I get a lot of technical stuff (a little math, and some programming and project development) as well as something of a social science education spinkled in.
One of the things we looked at briefly last quarter was the notion of Net Neutrality. The prospect of ISPs(Road Runner, Cox, etc.) having influence on where I'm surfing by speeding up or slowing down certain sites based on their business relationship (ie. how much money they're getting) is absurd.
The internet is a unique platform, and one of its greatest attributes is the fact that there are so many options for so many tasks. For searching, we get to pick Google, Yahoo!, Dogpile or one of the many other options. For blogging there's Blogger, LiveJournal, and Xanga, amongst others from an endless list. This kind of freedom should be a given for a medium that has thrived on the creativity of otherwise lesser-known individuals (like me and my three friends here, ok, more like the guy who made YouTube), and right now, a lot of companies are working towards eliminating that freedom.
The Net Neutrality issue is heating up a little bit with the looming election. McCain is skeptical on it, seemingly going back and forth, and Obama and Clinton have gone out of their way to support Net Neutrality.
My boy, BaROCK, supported neutrality in an interesting, and relevant way though. For two candidates with similar platforms, it's these kind of little things that make the difference for me.
So here it is, Obama's PODCAST and transcript on Network Neutrality.
