The internet has become so prominent in our daily lives that it is shockingly invisible. We depend so heavily upon it that we hardly even have to think about it. For people who have consistent access to it the internet doesn’t mean much more than a strong wifi connection. As long as my emails are being received and I’m able to stream Curb Your Enthusiasm, or use Wikipedia at my disposal why should I bother knowing more? Most people find the infrastructure of the internet confusing and irrelevant, they don’t really need to know how it works as long as their access goes uninterrupted. What happens when access is interrupted? When does it become relevant to understand the current and previous architecture of the internet?
This blog aims to outline the idea that Internet culture challenges the distinction between producers and users1 and how this distinction has evolved under commercial influence. I will briefly discuss debates around Free and Open Source Software and Open Access as these ideas are essential to user-driven development and collaborative research. A lot of research around the internet tends to look at its production (who builds it and why) or its use (what people do with it), but Janet Abbate makes an important point in her book Inventing the Internet, when she writes that “...users are not necessarily just “consumers” of a technology but can take an active part in defining its features.”(Abbate, 8) To understand the how issues of Open Access relate to the Internet I will attempt to historically contextualize the work of Aaron Swartz and other Open Access advocates. Since I am limited on time for now I will be focusing almost entirely on the Internet as it has developed and functioned in the U.S., so it is worth noting that this blog will exclude alternative networking philosophies that have produced important Internet developments, activism, and contributions globally.
The Internet is so expansive that it is inadequate to trace its origins to a singular event, group, or project. This article from a 2015 volume of Internet and Culture describes multiple origin stories of the internet in order to make this point. When we talk about the Internet we are not only talking about its technical infrastructure but also its social, economic, cultural, and global impacts. In 1974 in his self-published book Computer Lib/Dream Machines, in reference to new computer technology, Ted Nelson writes “...there is an under level of technicality, but like the foundations of a cathedral, it serves only to support what rises from it”2. This perfectly describes the relationship between the technological and social aspects of the Internet.