Plutocracy doomed Windows Vista, implosion of the web next?
Even if you haven’t experienced it yourself, you’ve probably heard the pervasive criticism about Windows Vista. With so many users obviously dissatisfied, how could Microsoft make such a grievous error in judgement? Simple, they wanted more money. It’s a contagious business model, and if that kind of thinking infects enough major players on the web enough to create an online plutocracy, our generation will witness the world’s largest implosion–it will mean the end of the web as we know it.
There’s no doubt, money is a powerful influencer. It can buy most worldly pleasures imaginable and motivate people to do great (and horrible) things, and that power of the wealthy is the pinnacle of power in a plutocracy. It’s no coincidence that one of the most powerful companies in America props itself against that same pillar. Microsoft hoards cash in droves and uses it to bend whole industries to its will.
In Windows Vista’s case, once again money was the motivator to bench Longhorn and ramp up a rabid development schedule to create a sloppy new version of Windows that ended up with the inspiring name Vista. Microsoft just couldn’t resist the blast of cash that would erupt upon the release of a new Windows OS. It’s Microsoft’s own micro-ecology governed by a plutocracy.
But according to Chinese philosophy, for every Yin there is a Yang, and we have a perfect example of that today: the web. Just like pirates taunted authority on the vast seas until resource-rich companies and countries routed them out of existence, so too does the web taunt established seats of power.
On the web, companies with vast resources and capabilities can be stymied by a single voice of dissension. That’s possible because of the free flow of information across the globe.
But with enough money, even the flow of something as ethereal as data can be stopped. That’s the scary part about plutocracy. Here’s an example. What if Google decided one day that in addition to the billions it brings in from advertising, it also wanted to start charging $.10 per search query.
What was your first reaction? Something like “forget it, I’ll use another search engine then!”? But the next biggest player, Yahoo, just happens to be the target of a possible hostile takeover by Microsoft. If the newly purchased Yahoo were to jump onboard with charging $.10 per search query too, options for the average web surfer would suddenly be scarce.
Luckily Google is pretty happy with its decadence in advertising, and its current owners are benevolent.
But that’s not the only angle. Net neutrality is another layer in the dissemination of information on the web, and major ISPs are trying to rip additional sources of revenue from content owners, without providing additional value. If that happens, and fewer people have access to the web, or they have reduced speeds to download high quality content, then plutocracy will have pierced deeper into the traditionally wild web.
Right now the web is exploding, pushing information back and forth across the globe in a virtual representation of humanity. Throttle that ebb and flow, and it will implode.
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