Netpolitik:The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized

The Information Revolution
Will Not Be Monetized

You will not be able to stay home, nyms.
You will not be able to log in, click once and zone out.
You will not be able to lose yourself in blogs and forums
or be AFK or BRB
because the revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be ip accessible,
The revolution will not be in the cloud;
You will not be combed, cultured or deep-packet scrutinized;
No one will grab your metaphorical genitals with their metaphorical
rubber-clad hands and rummage through your most intimate communications.


The revolution will not ask you for your government-sanctioned and approved identification for verification that you are an eager consumer with cash in hand ready to grease the wheels of progress. The revolution will not follow you on Twitter or trail your dossier to make it easier for you to log in to websites. The revolution will not demand an extra tax to support the outmoded business models and obscene profits of an old and rotting media cartel which privatized a public commodity and stole the network from you to line their own fat pockets. The revolution will not be monetized.


The revolution will not be quantized, synthesised or facially-recognized. The revolution will not come to you over an unlimited line with traffic-shaping, hidden caps or peak hours. The revolution will not come as an attachment in your free email or downloaded movies from The Pirate Bay, or hand you maps on your GPS or phone. The revolution will not care about the latest watered-down product being pushed by the Marketeers as a ringtone, because the revolution will not be monetized.


The revolution will not be LOLcats, or a collection of adorable kittens, or hamsters, or llamas or ponies. The revolution will not be Flash ads, Flash cookies, Flash menues or flash actors. It will not be the Revolution of Linux on the Desktop. The revolution will not care if you use vi or emacs; the revolution will not do Windows because the revolution will not be monetized.


The revolution will not be emailed, downloaded, posted on You Tube or have a Facebook page. It will not be in your Circles or on your contacts list. All channels may not be available in all countries. You will not get to vote thumbs up or thumbs down or leave comments about the revolution. The revolution will not be Farmville and the revolution will not check your social network before employing you.


The revolution will not come in all resolutions and all 32M possible colors including several Alpha channels for transparency. The revolution will not be in your iPhone, your iPad or your iMac; there will not be an app for everything and Androids are not going to save you. The revolution will not be 4G or 5G or 8G or the BeeGees because the revolution will not be monetized.


The information revolution will not be monetized,
will not be monetized,
will not be monetized,
will not be monetized,
the revolution will be no Facebook, nyms;
the revolution will be streaming live.


Created on Twitter
Remix/Homage to Gil Scott-Heron, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised



ADDENDUM 08.08.11

Thank the gods for the internet
(UK Riots)


I was caught in the middle of the Los Angeles Riots in 1992. I spent days taping local news because the media was given direct orders from the President to censor outgoing footage (look it up). There were very few of us on the internets at that time and information was being dispersed by forums, newsgroups and email.

What we saw on the ground conflicted heavily with what I saw over CNN and other external media. The story about Daryl Gates, then-Chief of the LAPD and his criminal actions in pulling the police from the city after the Rodney King trial over an internal power struggle were not reported. Likewise, external media outlets were downplaying the spread and extent of the war zone which LA had become, making it appear to be "small pockets of violence" when in fact my city looked like Beirut.


Here's what I personally saw and video/photographed:

- Three boys standing in a burning, collapsing Payless shoe store, trying on shoes to make sure they were stealing the right size.

- A furious gun battle right outside my apartment between rival gangs of looters.

- The Chief of Police smiling at the cameras as he allowed his men to remain leaderless.

- The local news telling us after 3 days that the National Guard was coming, which cheered us all... except then they told us the Guard would have no ammunition with them.

- Local news media showing affected areas and non-infected areas; basically telling everyone where there were no police and what were good targets.

- A very white, very Cali young woman in her 20s in a toy Suzuki jeep (pricey) back it into an trendy/exclusive Melrose clothing store's front window and shovel dresses and accessories into the jeep.

- A legitimate social protest becoming a match to the explosive social undercurrents and continuing accumulation of injustices prevalent in Los Angeles at that time. The protest devolved into a mindless violence against unseen and unfightable conditions across racial lines.

- Many honest, beautiful and brave black women and men stand in the path of rioters, crying and begging and also talking back to the looters, telling them they were damaging their own community, that they were thugs and that they did not speak for the black community this way.

- Many people of many colors protecting and supporting the Korean and black businesses and homes, sometimes at the threat of imminent violence.




It took approximately 30 hours for the local newspeople to start censoring footage; for the local anchors to agree on the story that was to be told and to sanitize their previous coverage using words like "well we can't always go on what we see" and "these things can be taken out of context" while meanwhile urging us in covert subtext to "do what you have to do to remain safe" (ie- the police aren't going to help you and you'd better get a gun). Information on the status of the violence was being tailored and shaped for us by the media and the government.


We did not have You Tube or Twitter or blogs or Plurk then. Personal cell phones were not in use. I thank the gods that we have them all now.


Please do not overlook the incredible possibilities the internets open for us in the consumer attraction to the Big Shiny. You probably don't know what it's like living without it, but I remember.

My video: I'm On Fire - The 1992 LA Riots