This view of the Web is so prevalent:
Big Companies = producers
Individuals = consumers
You can sense that view in this article [Can Broadband Save Online Media] currently running on news.com. Almost every article that discusses broadband Internet takes this view. What's missing is this view:
Individuals = producers
or this view:
Individuals = users
Consider the conditions attached to most broadband Internet service plans offered to homes by cable companies or phone companies: they don't allow individuals to run "servers." Presumably, that prohits peer-to-peer applications. Which is funny, since the next "killer app" for broadband could very well be a peer-to-peer application. By placing those kinds of restrictions, the cable and phone companies are working to inhibit large-scale adoption of their broadband Internet service.
Posted by Doug Sauder at June 10, 2002 09:32 AM