ARTS & FARCES internet

It should come as no surprise to anyone that very large American companies are scrambling to find a way to squeeze a profit from this thing called Internet. None of them understand it, but they all want to own it because with ownership comes control and with control comes power. Or at least it did until the Internet hit the scene. But very large American companies haven’t quite figured that out yet. See the circular logic? See very large American companies failing?

It’s mildly amusing to sit back and watch the dance as corporate greed becomes the standard mode of business operation. The corporate clowns dance with each other in a tight embrace with one hand clutched in a firm handshake; the other clenched around the handle of a large knife, poised to strike. Problem is when these bozos dance, people get hurt. And what was a slow, formal waltz is now an out-of-control pinstriped mosh pit.

Consider the duel between Netscape and Microsoft for a dance with America Online (AOL). On March 11, 1996, Netscape and America Online announced a technology alliance that would allow America Online to offer Netscape’s Navigator software as the standard Web browser for AOL customers. On March 12, 1996, America Online switched partners, announcing that Netscape was out and the standard AOL Web browser would be Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. AOL would continue to offer Netscape Navigator to its customers, but only as a second, non-standard choice.

If that's not weird enough for you, consider that the exact same thing happened between Netscape and Microsoft over who CompuServe would fill its dance card with. On March 11, 1996, CompuServe announced it would be dancing with Netscape. On March 12, 1996, CompuServe announced that Microsoft -- not Netscape -- would be its partner for this dance.

Never mind that in 1995 both America Online and CompuServe had spent millions to ensure their respective places in the Internet dance hall and were now abandoning their original fear-motivated investments. Don't think that Microsoft escaped from the initial hoe-down unscathed, either. Microsoft, remember, had spent large sums to create and promote its Microsoft Network (MSN) as uncertainty-driven competition against both CompuServe and AOL, only to "reposition" it as an Internet service provider.

Kill the babies

What these companies -- and others -- all have in common is the practice of killing their babies. CompuServe acquired Spry and quickly managed to pretty much kill it off. Similarly, AOL acquired Global Network Navigator (GNN) and let it die of neglect. AT&T did it with Interchange, after having paid dearly for the half-baked Ziff-Davis orphan. Apple did it with its eWorld, the incestuous sibling of AOL.

Having refined this practice to a fine art, these companies are now wielding once-hidden knives very close to each others privates. Microsoft's release of a permanently free Web browser (Internet Explorer) and server (Internet Information Server) can be seen as nothing less than an attempt to castrate Netscape. Meanwhile Netscape is desperately trying to sell the Chinese tools to create an electronic Great Firewall. Nobody's even started to swing those knives wildly yet. Trust me, this is going to get good.

Who's doing who

Here's a look at the jitterbug currently taking place in the Internet arena.

And this is small potatoes to what's going on in the broader telecommunications and media arenas.

As an author and a publisher, I'm very much concerned about how the Internet will impact the lives and livelihoods of the members of the creative community. At the same time that the nation's lawmakers are radically overhauling the country's telecommunications laws, an unprecedented consolidation is taking place in the media industry. While major publishing companies are beginning to demand that content creators relinquish all rights to their works with no additional compensation -- even in media that haven't been invented yet -- the diversity of voices is quickly diminishing.

A new business elite -- comprised of the telecommunications and media giants -- is quickly forming at the expense of small, independent voices. The members of this elite are familiar to most of us -- Murdoch, Gates, Eisner, Malone, Turner, Levin, and a small handful of others -- but the rarified climate in which they live is as foreign to us as another planet. Bill Gates, as the most glaring example enjoys an outrageous personal fortune of roughly US$15 billion that continues to grow, according to reports, at an astonishing US$450 million each month. This has become the age of the new-media Robber Barons.

According to trade publications, the 10 largest telecommunications companies control more than US$80 billion in industry revenues, dominating their respective markets. Within the grasp of this handful of moguls is control over the work we do, as well as how and where we do it; the information we receive and how we receive it; the people with whom we interact and how that interaction takes place.

The media convergence the pundits predicted 10 years ago was never supposed to be like this. Instead of a rich diversity of a multitude of voices and a multitude of choices, we're being faced with the non-choice of a vertically-integrated monolith where cable, entertainment, telecommunications, computing, and publishing consolidate instead of converge.

With a straight face, the new-media Robber Barons insist that any sort of government intrusion or restraint is a Bad Thing. At the same time, they insist that the government protect their fifedom franchises from interlopers. What's happened while most of us were busy doing other things, is that the government and the new-media Robber Barons have partnered to create the most powerful managerial entity on the planet. All at the expense of the public interest.

Given a choice, most of us do not favor the concentration of power. Given a choice, most of us favor doing what's fair and equitable and in the best public interest. It's time for us to collectively assert those choices.

The Internet is our best hope to stem this consolidation and ensure the rich diversity of voices for which this culture is known.