Freedom of the Web
Today, I read an interesting post by Dave Winer. He said the following:
“For me, the web was creative liberation. Seriously. I had given up on making software because everything was so jammed up and ugly in the tech world. The web freed up everything. We could create again, because I could set up my own net that no one owned but me. I didn’t have to get anyone’s approval to play with servers.”
I couldn't agree more. I think the fundamental thing that separates the Internet from all other mediums is that it is open to everyone. If you can manage to get a device that speaks TCP/IP and HTTP you can communicate with the world.
As a programmer, this is an amazing thing. I have the freedom to use and write whatever software I want on my machine. Compare this to creating something for the iOS App Store, where Apple must bless your software before it can be used.
The sentiment that Dave wrote about is one of the many reasons that I think protecting the Internet is important. We must be careful not to let something so unique slip away from us.
