Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

it has been suggested that the internet is the next frontier.  this morning i suddenly came to agreement with this statement.  before people had believed in america as the place to go for getting the so-called "American Dream."  However, in the past few years, especially with the Bush administration, the people who can achieve this dream is slowly growing fewer and fewer.  Instead, America has become a sort of neo-feudlistic society.  Rather than supporting true notions of a free market and capitalism, America has moved into the role of the world's Big Brother with its mega corporations acting as the fiefdoms supporting the kings.  Land has become a premium, food is not plenty, gas is outrageous and opportunities are shipped overseas at the cost of local jobs.  These forces are turning America into a larger version of Europe or the UK, a complete hypocrisy of the founding principles.

However, the Internet has spurned new hope, not geographically, but virtually.  In America, you are greeted by security guards and military forces when approaching the entry points to the country.  The Internet allows anyone with a connection and a device to become part of a virtual geography, one limited only by politics, bandwidth, infrastructure, and imagination.  Still, the Internet has allowed people like myself to create a new space where geographically places in the world no longer provide the means necessary to support me.

I believe in the Internet frontier because it's completely unpaved.  People are building up territories and colonies just in the same way America, Japan and other countries had been created by pioneers who were unsatiated by their governments and sought freedom.  Internet, unlike America, has given me a job and opportunities to live my dreams, put food on my table, a roof over my head and support myself and my family.  if the internet did not exist, i would probably be handing coffee out to customers at the local Starbucks in my hometown.  if it did not exist, my knowledge of the world would be even more limited.  i would have less communications and be ignorant about many things.  the internet has provided nearly limitless information for me, only hampered by the legal and politics of those who have large coffers.

the better thing about the internet is that i'm helping to contribute the virtual sand to create the ground, the foundation of the virtual cities that will grow in the future.  this is progress.