>"No the sums don't add up. Tax payers will subsidise some of the costs and Google will undoubtedly analyse the traffic to deliver yet even more personalised advertising. The local government will subsidise parts of the installation and make it legally as smooth as possible."
As much as I agree with you, this quote highlights something that cycles through my mind whenever I read about Google's ambitions. Basically, Google is doing and motivating people to do what our government should (and as we read, apparently somewhat can in some ways) do to improve our communications infrastructure. It annoys me to think that we could simply be building a new (potentially more neutral) fiber "highway" across the country with a similar model, run by the government. If only people weren't so afraid of government and hell bent on handing things off to private sector instead of the public sector. It's disappointing, and I feel in the very long run it could very well backfire on all of us if google succeeds and becomes the next AT&T.
"It annoys me to think that we could simply be building a new (potentially more neutral) fiber 'highway' across the country with a similar model, run by the government. If only people weren't so afraid of government..."
The government has given us many reasons why we should fear a government-operated internet infrastructure. Do you really want the same government that's seizing web domains without due process to control the physical infrastructure as well? The same government that wants to vacuum up all the internet traffic of law-abiding citizens? That does warrantless wiretaps? That runs the TSA? Be careful what you wish for.
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>"No the sums don't add up. Tax payers will subsidise some of the costs and Google will undoubtedly analyse the traffic to deliver yet even more personalised advertising. The local government will subsidise parts of the installation and make it legally as smooth as possible."
As much as I agree with you, this quote highlights something that cycles through my mind whenever I read about Google's ambitions. Basically, Google is doing and motivating people to do what our government should (and as we read, apparently somewhat can in some ways) do to improve our communications infrastructure. It annoys me to think that we could simply be building a new (potentially more neutral) fiber "highway" across the country with a similar model, run by the government. If only people weren't so afraid of government and hell bent on handing things off to private sector instead of the public sector. It's disappointing, and I feel in the very long run it could very well backfire on all of us if google succeeds and becomes the next AT&T.
"It annoys me to think that we could simply be building a new (potentially more neutral) fiber 'highway' across the country with a similar model, run by the government. If only people weren't so afraid of government..."
The government has given us many reasons why we should fear a government-operated internet infrastructure. Do you really want the same government that's seizing web domains without due process to control the physical infrastructure as well? The same government that wants to vacuum up all the internet traffic of law-abiding citizens? That does warrantless wiretaps? That runs the TSA? Be careful what you wish for.