For the small user who doesn’t have to pay to use twitter yes it is “free” but they still pay to be connected. And someone if funding Twitter (and the like) in hopes on monetizing it. VC’s are not philanthropists.

My point was that there was a difference between truly “free” & what is not directly paid for. When you say free I think you mean not directly paid for. This may be quibbling but I think is an important distinction.

I would heartily disagree about the re-writing of economics. I started to write a reply of why but it was too superficial, we’ll just have to agree to disagree, or have beer and argue it out.

As for your thoughts on revolution, these are perfectly valid from the point of view of **history**. I was trained as an historian, what you are doing is categorizing the past in light of today’s interpretation. Perfectly valid to do so, as long as you recognize that this is what you are doing. People at the time may have (and usually did have) a different view of things).

To speak of current events as a revolution I stand by my assertion that time is relevant.

And the stopping of the web in democracies may be theoretically conceivable and I totally agree with you that this is unlikely. But we don’t all have the privilege of living in one, and the world’s most populous country isn’t one.

I was looking at the global picture as opposed to the local one as you seemed to be talking big picture.

Cheers

To quibble back:

1) Yes, there is still a bill, but the point is that it is now very very small, which means that the ability to distribute information to a mass audience (and the ability for information to be separated from distribution) is essentially available to all for virtually no cost. The only reason we are obsessed with monetisation and economics is because we still use the old models for valuation. The social media revolution will re-write economics, rather than be beholden to it.

2) Revolutions are not determined by time but by degree. The agricultural revolution probably took many generations but it transformed the future of the human species. The industrial revolution played out over many decades, the Gutenberg revolution likewise rippled across the world over a long period of time (it was called the Renaissance).

3) It can only really be stopped if someone pulls the plug on the whole internet. Possible, but pretty difficult, in democracies at any rate.

1) Information is not really freely distributed, while it may be free to you, someone, somewhere is paying the bill, free in this sense is an illusion.

2) Semantics: If a revolution doesn’t happen quickly, it’s not a revolution, it’s evolution (which I think is the more appropriate term for this process).

3) Nothing can stop it? Sure it can, in its tracks.
Politics & force can – and in some places do.

The freedoms we have are not universal nor assured to be in perpetuity. Fortuitous events happen, prosperity happens, enjoy them while you can. But don’t assume they are forever.

Economics can shut this down in a flash
(loop back to #1)
Someone somewhere has to pay the bill.

Cheers