Don't Knock Figgy PuddingDon't Knock Figgy Pudding

Like today, the Victorian Era was a time of technological innovation. But we still have to do better.

The Victorian Era may not be for you and romanticizing it wouldn't likely convince you that they were the good ol' days. Mortality rates, conveniences, lifestyles and even taxes weren't what we have today. Relatively speaking, the technology for the era was booming with an entrepreneurial spirit of creativity. During this time--steamships, railways and the electric telegraph were changing our world with fortunes made, lives transformed and the entrance of networks.

Fast-forward to today and we have engaged in an addictive emphasis and dependency on the network. There is no doubt our era is being transformed by the network that impacts every area of our lives. Opportunity exists in so many places and it's clearly visible unless of course your enterprise is just another fat cat standing by for an easy meal.

The FCC is currently a miserable example of democracy with an agenda that would make any socialist proud. Socializing the Internet I don't think is the answer to our problems and there remains a population that will always resist government intrusion and overreaching actions. Screwing up the network doesn't take an act of intelligence, but sheer idiocy stemming from Capitol Hill (as we've witnessed) can erect a mountain of damage in relatively short time with lasting effects that reach generationally. More later.

But government isn't the only challenge and barrier to restoring our national economy. While it doesn't sound fitting to say "global economy;" I don't give a rat's behind about the bad deals that government and enterprise have conjured. Instead of paying tribute to Caesar (he's dead), the network is playing a role in the greatest form of societal change in spite of government. Since the network played a key role, dictators overthrown and out of countries after having inflicted decades of oppression can’t be ignored. Why it's so latent among the US population in removing boneheads from office and rightsizing government is a great mystery.

Freedom at times seems to be an illusion or too great an act of faith. Too much freedom, then exploitation of people occurs but too much regulation, heads get removed. The network seems capable of removing more social and political barriers. In times past, people relied on the telegraph, Teletype, telephone, television and tell-a-man or tell-a-woman. UC, however you define it, extends beyond our past and reaches into the future by converging our communicative senses and empowering us with the ability to collaborate. This is a great challenge, perhaps even greater than the opportunity itself.

For decades our society has relied upon the mass media, and that dependency I think is now evolving away into a new interdependency upon resources, namely other people virtually anywhere on the planet within reach of the network. An open and free Internet remains a bright light and with this opportunity comes huge responsibility among those tasked with making it work 24x7. As the old sacred dial tone met its predecessor long ago with little fanfare, the PSTN is seeing its successor penetrate into lives as it once did. While the network serves to provide us access and delivery of content, it binds us together with an added twist of a dependency upon services and reaching out to one another. This should keep the sociologists busy and hopefully, we as a society will soberly grasp the tool of collaboration handed to us and learn to use it to our collective advantage.