By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Associate Director of Academic Computing

This column is brought to you by the Internet

Recently, I've begun to see commentaries and newspaper comics which have made fun of the idea of expecting to find "free stuff" on the Internet. The subtext seems to be that the Internet generation is spoiled by having jokes, games, histories, or technical information available to them at no cost -- that there is no basis to complain about what you get for free. Of course, there is a cost, whether it is a subscription for a home Internet service or part of a corporate or educational infrastructure. The Internet has never been free. Still, it is surprising to run across what seems to be blatant resentment of the Internet or even subtle criticism of freely available content.

It seems that there's a double standard out there. Television is "free" yet there is no limit to the criticism of what is offered on the broadcast networks. We don't, however, complain about or criticize people getting all that content for free. In fact, we still cling to the idea that the "airwaves" belong to the people of this country and that television should in some part serve the public interest. At the same time, the television generations have grown up with the idea of corporate sponsorship - i.e. commercials. So accepting of commercials are we that we sensitize our youngest children to them by informing that their educational television program is "brought to you by the letter A."

Commercials on the Internet, however, are met with a totally different attitude. This is partly because the Internet grew up within the education and research communities where commercialism wasn't appropriate or required. The other reason may be that online advertisement is more intrusive than TV commercials. In spite of efforts by TV executives to legally bind you to your chair, you can leave the room when the commercials are on or at least focus your attention on something else. Ads on web pages tend to be placed where you are forced to see them or appear as new browser windows that you must dispatch before you can view what you were really looking for.

Sponsored by?

So, who will bring you what's on the Internet? Will we legitimize criticism by relying on corporate sponsorship of Internet content? I hope not, since the wasteland which is broadcast TV is in direct correlation with content that is mediated by corporate interests. Is there a new model that we can employ for supporting Internet content?

In part, the model already exists. It is this: given the opportunity, people will publish their interests, expertise, activities, or organizational efforts. They'll do so because they are interested and believe others are too. Their motivation may be personal or public-spirited, but in the end, we all get to benefit from their efforts (this by the way, is how "free" software gets written too). As long as the cost of publication remains low, the amount of Internet content remains large and the quality is generally high.

That last line is the catch. Internet service is becoming increasingly consumer driven. That is, we can get as much as we want but publishing whatever we want is a bit harder. A commercial Internet service usually comes with some bit of web publishing space, however, there are limitations on size, hit tolerance, and in some cases, content allowed. If you publish a popular or useful web page, you can soon find it shut down because too many people try to access it. Or worse, you can find it shut down because somebody complains about the content. Thus to independently publish, you really need your own dedicated Internet connection and your own web server, a cost which may not be always in reach of those with truly interesting content to publish.

A radical alternative

It may be too much to hope that Internet content remains free and motivated by the public interest. There's still a chance, however, to influence the outcome. Certainly, any additional legislation governing intellectual property or digital security will affect the ability to publish on the Internet. So far this legislation has tended to be reactionary and weighted heavily in the favor of commercial interests and intellectual property holders. It's not too late, however, to include rights of fair use and support for the public interest in any future action. The other way to affect things is to continue to publish, however you can.

I've heard of another effort where information was made available at public expense to further the public interest. There were places where collections of information were gathered and made available to anyone who wished to view them, regardless of economic or social standing. I know this concept probably seems quite liberal and radical. I think those places were called "libraries."