[kwlug-disc] UBB comes to Teksavvy

[R. Brent Clements]

Factual basis for my statements?  None of this has passed the scrutiny
required to be called a fact.  But consider these scenarios:

"Billy, you can't google that author for your book report, because
Microsoft released service pack 20 this month."

Linux Distro Downloads?

"Sally, you can't facebook grandma because your brother watched a porn clip"

"What? what do you mean my computer has a spambot on it?"

To put it simply, access to the internet is an oportunity for
education not available in the past that can make us better as a
nation.  At least a dozen times at work I have heard people arguing
over some topic completely in error, that I have been able to fix with
a quick google from my phone.  That has to be useful to our students.
Let the learn when inspiration strikes them.  Not when bandwidth
allows.

Litterally thousands of musicians need people to stream their songs
and videos from Youtube or their own websites in order to promote
their shows.  Hell, Justin Bieber would still be a geeky kid from
Stratford if it wasn't for teenage girls on youtube (ok, bad example)

Skype has made it possible for families all over the world to see and
hear eachother in new ways.

Facebook continually consumes bandwidth if you leave the browser window open.

Everything else aside, we pay too much for Internet.  If you make
enough money that you are willing to pay a company that makes 16
billion dollars profit a year more money to do the stuff everyone else
in the world gets to do for far less than we already pay, then by all
means go for it.  But I don't make that much money.  I never have.
Neither do so many other Canadians.  The internet levels the playing
field.  It allows friendships to foster between people who would never
have spoken to each other before.  It provides us access to
entertainment, culture, information, and knowledge quicker and more
efficiently than any other technology or medium ever in our history.
It provides oportunities for business and economic growth that would
never have existed, let alone have been accessible to so many people.
And it does this for everyone.  regardless of where you are, how well
connected your family is, how mainstream acceptable your ideas may be.
 There is room an opportunity for all.  One politically well connected
entity in our society should not be allowed to stifle this community
that is not theirs to begin with on the grounds that 16 billion
dollars a year is not a high enough corporate profit.

People make information available for free.  Other people provide
wonderful services at reasonable prices.  If a musician posts music
online, we should be listening to it.  If someone releases a
groundbreaking new piece of software on Sourceforge, we should take
the oportunity to access it?  I pay them for a connection to these
services.  What right should the ISP have to a cut of that?

As another example, I have never walked down Father David Bauer drive
in Waterloo,  Probably never will.  Why should my tax dollars be used
to maintain sidewalks on that street.  Should we put toll booths in
every street, sidewalk, public path and mall corridor in Canada?
Should we make every television in every home coin operated?  Should
the gasoline industry decide where and when you can drive your car?

The government owes us.  They should be required to step in not
because Bell is charging too much money.  They should be required to
step in because they allowed Bell and Rogers to sieze control of the
mechanism that naturally tempers businesses like this--Freedom of
Choice.  They have taken away our choices.  Every new option that has
been made available to us has been taken away by them in the name of
their profits.  And in this day and age we cannot deprive any child of
oportunites to learn.  The internet provides those oportunities.  Sure
there is lots of bad stuff, wrong stuff, and even dangerous stuff out
there, but I won't deprive myself of a meal because something else in
the fridge is moldy.

Brent


On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 7:38 PM,  <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:41:44 +0000, rbclemen at gmail.com wrote:
>> It is not in Bell's or Rogers best interest for Canadians to use the
>> Internet. This move is a blatant attempt to make using the Internet
>> undesirable. And that will have a tremendous impact on our society and
> the
>> ability for the less affluent to access the wealth of knowledge that the
>> internet is full of.  It is an attack on our culture and our educational
>> development in the name of, not increasing--but maintaining, corporate
>> profits.
>
>> ... and the
>> ability for the less affluent to access the wealth of knowledge that the
>> internet is full of.
>
> That has to be a crock. If you take out streaming or torrents you won't go
> over the cap, and you will incur no additional cost. (And you're already on
> the lowest, or almost lowest tier service, capacity and speed, anyways.)
>
> What is the factual basis for your statements?
>
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