Amrita, yeah, I think it’s about the volume and redefining our notions of what is considered “real” and “true.” Quite a philosophical dilemma, actually.

Mark – Yeah. I think that the thought isolation is particularly worrisome – has to do with access to mainly education (that’s where all this _really_ roots, even though they it is a problem with technology, it comes from where we learn how to use them). I mean, at this point, we cannot (in the US) even connect with our neighbors. That’s how isolated we’re becoming.

“Not enough people are able to access with freedom the entire Internet wherever they… Open wireless standards are not yet global, and wired and wireless Internet is still not as wide spread as it should be. Smart Phones are attempts to close this gap, but again, the price is too high and the freedom doesn’t exist (not in the United States, at least).”

These are things I wrote a lot about for my CellRev.com project, as they are indeed uniquely North American perspectives. Here, there is an almost universal understanding amongst consumers that mobile devices are NOT a necessity. Because of this, we have a wireless industry that operates on the assumption that nobody NEEDS a mobile device, justifying the existence of an exclusively privatized ecosystem with no universal standards or regulatory bodies. Because of this attitude, devices are expensive and limited for commercial gain and operators provide poor services for high prices.

In all the other continents, especially Asia, the attitude is that mobile devices are a necessity – a utility – just as important as clean water and electricity. The result of this is cooperation between private industry and governments across boarders. In these continents the vast majority of people have open access to the internet through a mobile connection, regardless of social class or geographical location. Mobile devices and networks are built for the masses and most importantly, standards and regulations are enforced to ensure access for all. So in conclusion, I agree with you that internet access is a problem, but only in North America, where we are becoming ever more isolated in both thought and technology as the rest of the world steams ahead with connecting their populations to each other and the world.

Pondering point #2 re: quality – is this an issue of cloud or accessibility? i.e. the more people have the ability to create and distribute content the less curated the space is, and the more data/content we produce, making it harder to fact check, etc…?

–Amrita