Just as the world is bounded by borders and frontiers, so is the Internet. Most of the time the user doesn’t even know it, but the Internet is not “the whole world”, it is a fragmented environment, in fierce economic competition, often at war. The internet’s promise of universal content has long since vanished. Yet the adventure started differently. Initially born as an intrinsically barrier-free infrastructure, in the nineties the network hosted a first community of internet users who thought of a dream of universal brotherhood, independent of any economic or political power. However, when institutions began to understand the commercial and strategic potential of the Internet, things changed. With differential systems depending on the geographical area and the social system, the network has gradually fragmented, enormous technological monopolies have arisen capable of directing it, with colossal profits, and more or less evident geographical barriers have formed under the direct control of the political authority. What we experience today is an unresolved relationship between a global infrastructure and a political structure of the world based on nation states, with all the tensions that come with it. But the game is underway and the governance of the Internet is one of the key points of the future structure of the world and concerns us all.
Vittorio Bertola will be our guest speaker at SOI on Wednesday, November 15th, at 7PM.
Book here your spot!
