Pre-released @ DailyKos


So I was listening to Alex Jones' radio show today.  His site was hit by the partial internet outage that made waves last week.  Because of that Alex was speculating about how the internet could crippled and replaced with the "internet2", which has many restrictions and controls.  Alex believes that scenario will play out eventually, and a guerrila net will emerge.

Now enough speculation.  What I hope to accomplish with this diary is to plant the spark a discussion about the internet2 and offer what little knowledge I have of it myself.

Firstly, internet2 is just an organization.  The network itself is called the Abilene Network.

(for current network status click on the map... apparently they're having problems right now)


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On the Death of the Internet (as we know it)

Critics, like Jones, of the internet2 are saying that the control of access and content are an affront to free speech, however I am willing to suspend pre-judgement and hope that they are wrong in their predictions.

Spam is a big issue, gobbling up bandwidth at an alarming rate.  Demand for bandwidth and guaranteed bandwidth created the internet2, if you ask me.  Now I'm not saying that the internet is going to die, but that it is a possibility.  We should not take it for granted.  Odds are that there will be change.  Nothing is static.

More Links to Related News & Info:

google:internet+control

fiberoptic testbed (LambdaRail)

Internet2.edu

Fun Fact:

The internet2/AbileneNet is a academic-corporate alliance, and the LambdaRail is strictly academic.  

Thoughts?  Anyone with more education about this want to chyme in?  Set me straight?  Am I off my rocker?