Deconstructing DH/NII (was: Should we oppose...?)

[fnerd@smds.com (FutureNerd Steve Witham)]

Mike Godwin asks what Tim May is against when he says he's against the
NII ("National Information Infrastructure"), or DH ("Data Superhigh-
way.")  Mike also points out that EFF is not into government funding or
regulation, but (I paraphrase) as long as the govt is going to be 
involved, why not try to convince them to be involved in the right
way?  One way he mentions is providing incentives to steer the 
industry in good directions since we're going to [future tense] 
have *some* kind of data superhighway anyway.  Mike is certainly 
right that there are directions it would be nice to steer the 
government in in these issues, and I'm sure grateful for his (and 
EFF's) efforts on that front.

I think this "that's not what we meant...but why not..." situation 
that Mike finds himself in is due to the nature of "initiatives" like 
NII.  We are afloat in connotations, suggestions and perverse pep.

The phrases "National Information Infrastructure" and "Data Super-
highway" do not conjure an anarchist vision.  They do not suggest 
companies and people working independently in parallel, free from 
centralized interference.  They do not convey the idea that the net
is what you make of it, what your exploring and connecting bring 
together for you, out of a hodgepodge of methods, links, databases
and groups of friends.  The fact that NII and DH are new terms, and 
that they are talked about as future goals, does not convey the fact 
that the data superhighway is here today. 

I'm understating, of course.  These terms connote all the opposite
things.  Centralization, government funding, premature standar-
dization, regulation--and finally a decent data network as a result.
I'm not being unfair.  These connotations are there because that's 
exactly what many of the people using these terms mean.  They want 
all the wrong things, and all the wrong ideas attach themselves to
national project proposals like this.

There's an additional misleading connotation, that there is some
watershed mark that we're all talking about, some point--in the
future--when we'll finally have "enough" or the "right" communi-
cations underpinning*.  This is partly just boosterism--Clinton and 
Gore wanting to be JFK going to the moon--but also there's the
hint that once the big guys implement the right way to do things,
we consumers shouldn't complain.  I mean there's an implication
in terms like "infrastructure" of experts knowing what is needed.
And of course this discounts the efforts of the people who have
brought us to where we are.  There's a hint that what we've got is
fine for hackers, but it's not, well, *organized* enough to be
suitable for the real world.  (Partly true but still an insult
and a backhanded dismissal of the purposefulness of our anarchy.)

(*There is no watershed.  You can get a T1 line now.  Prices will go 
down, bandwith up, ubiquity and commonness up, standardization and 
ease of use up, complication down, I hope--continuously for the 
forseeable future as they have been doing so far.)

Still it's all only connotations and impressions, and anyone
in particular may not mean this or that.  But given that there
are lots of people who really *do* intend the bad ideas, I 
wish people who come from a whole different point of view would
make that really really clear.  Starting by not using the same
slogans.  So, we need some alternatives.

Slogans for how the real network is:
Hmm, the anarchic data backroad (adb--nope, taken)...
Or, "The Network's Fine" (as in, "Come on in...")--TNF.
You Are Here---YAH...

Or we can invent slogans for what the DH/NII really mean:
Or, "Drag The Government Kicking and Screaming Into The Eighties"
(or do I mean the seventies, a la ethernet and UUCP?)--DG8.
The Federal Technical Catchup (FTC--oops, another one taken)...
No, I know--the Federal Communications Catchup...
Big Brother with a Human Face...

Work with me on this, folks.

-fnerd@smds.com
quote me

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