I can see myself 50 years from now sitting in my old folks home or mansion or military style underground bunker, discussing the early days of the internet to my grandchildren or great grandchildren or alien caretakers or mutant guards. In that conversation I would chuckle  as I spoke fondly of Al Gore and his claims of inventing it, and maybe even mention offhanded Timothy Leary and his notions of wetware and how perhaps they tie into the internet? (Because I’d be senile and crazy) And then I’d remember the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 and my warm nostalgic grin would fade; my face would become stern and full of longing for what might have been…

Today Twitter and Facebook suffered a despicable attack from a hacker who’s actions overloaded their servers. Who are these a**holes? It’s like someone taking a city bus and then unloading a bag of stink-bombs, it’s utterly disrespectful and selfish. And yet, whenever we have a worm, a hacker, a virus, the industry responds with diligent work to build better code, better firewalls, stronger and more robust software platforms, to help us deal with and avoid B.S. like what happened today. The INDUSTRY responds. The software and internet developers and host of other related tech firms get down to biz and react. It is a communal response. A challenge, and to some a game. Good VS evil. Because we care about the internet, or at least we care about having an open and amazing communications forum to propel our ideas and facilitate our discourse and dialogue.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009, being pursued by Senators John Rockefeller of Virginia and Olympia Snowe of Maine, presents a case for the government of the United States to adopt a paternalistic stance on the internet- and to those of us on the front lines of this civilian battle, it is an affront.  There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of gifted programmers who care deeply about developing software for the betterment of business and individuals and about being stewards of the internet- far more of them than malicious hackers. For government to adopt such a paternalistic stance and take control of cyberspace means only two things- more taxes to pay for a bloated cyber bureaucracy or cybereaucracy if you will, and the potential for political ideology to stifle the greatest advancement in communications since the printed word. You know what, I’ll throw in one more thing. It also means that the robust and rapid response to hackers and viruses/worms from thousands upon thousands of civilians and businesses will be nullified by a rigid and politicized office bound in red tape and politics- slow by nature as are most bureaucracies. This bill will stifle the greatest innovative defensive power the internet has to depend on- users.

It is an utterly backwards thinking to a modern and dynamic problem.  Let’s keep the internet open, dynamic, competitive, and natural. By natural I mean, let the users take care of it. We can be the stewards of this land. How well does it seem the governments of the world have been at taking care of our physical environment? I’m skeptical of their ability to manage our virtual environment. When it comes to internet security and managing the net- let the Government protect its online materials and let the rest of us protect ours. To loosely paraphrase Jesus, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and let us take care of the rest.

2009 Cybersecurity Act

After receiving a phone call from one of the founders of Vancouver BC’s Big Room, I’m happy to revisit my previous post concerning the competition now surrounding the .eco gTLD bid that will be finalized hopefully by this 2010. Okay, here are some refinements to the post.

According to Jacob Malthouse, co-founder of Big Room, they actually started the exploration into .eco before the Dot Eco boys in Hollywood did, and they had made it known. So it more accurately has stuck in their craw (still don’t know what that is) especially since, according to Jacob, Big Room did in fact make efforts to connect with Dot Eco to discuss things proactively; There was no reply from California. So now that we’ve cleared that up, here’s why Big Room is better suited for this in my humble bloggerpinion than Al Gore and his camp:

After talking with Mr. Malthouse, I really get the sense that this is a passionate attempt to create something that will get environmentalists, NGOs, everyday contientious consumers, and business up to the next level of ecological responsibility and utility through the next level of networking and communications possibilities that this domain will create. Profitability aside. And secondly as a believer in free market economics I believe that nothing will benefit green business philosophy and environmentalism more than making it profitable and attractive to invest in. So for this post I go out beyond the usual realm of interest (ecommerce, seo, technology etc) and get a little philosophical. Now back to business.

An array of free services and features are planned to create further value to the .eco TLD that goes beyond the cultural cache of the suffix itself. And the Big Room .eco idea apparently didn’t begin as a TLD, which likely explains why the array of services and features they have planned come embedded in the proposal as it is developing. To paraphrase Malthouse it will essentially become the largest database on the planet in which to find and connect to information and services offered by companies who strive to practice environmentally responsible if not proactive practices. And for those in a community of thought that at times have had a startling array of discontinuity in methods and approaches, considering they’ve had such common aspirations and values in my experience, that sounds pretty useful. My only criticism now is that it’s difficult to ascertain these qualities about the Big Room bid from their site and from what little else I’ve been able to read in other blogs and articles. Yeah it sounds good…but explain to me now why it sounds good to me. Luckily in my case I actually got a phone call that did just that. The details are equally as intriguing as the big picture, for one who is interested in both web developments and the environment.

It will basically foster a huge increase in the efficiency one will find, exchange, and build upon information by anoyone interested in using and exploring the services that will come with this TLD. And it will be good for Vancouver SEO companies and the web industry in Vancouver in general if Big Room gets the bid. Which is something I’ve felt from the beginning regardless of how playfully cynical I may be and sound at times . So where’s my rebuttal phone call from Al Gore…I’m waiting.

So just when Al Gore goes and tries to re-invent the internet some Vancouver internet upstarts issue a global press release that sticks in his craw. I don’t know what a craw is and I don’t care to google it, but imagine that you wanted to spearhead an initiative to have a generic top level domain created to save the planet and then someone else came and stole your thunder; and power point presentation. The storm is around the .eco domain, a proposed hot designation for any company hoping to capitalize on greening its image and making those eco-bucks. And much like .edu there will be stringent standards you must live up to if you wish to be knighted with this rank. So now on one side we have Al Gore and a bunch of fancy Californians and on the other we have David Suzuki, the World Wildlife Fund and Vancouver start up Big Room. And the battle is getting fierce.

Both sides are threatening to donate massive proceeds from the .eco venture to environmental causes; eye to eye in a mexican showdown of global proportion while the ice caps melt. Aaaaand as the planet slowly cooks and chokes both sides are threatening to open the door to massive ecommerce and web hosting changes that will possibly save the planet. And lastly, both sides are betting on one big IF. That companies, and people will be flocking to .eco in a show of support, zeal and fervor for this new designation. And unlike .biz .mobi . and my favorite .info, that it will stick. Can you hear the pitch now directed at countless companies? “We can save you millions on your marketing campaign. A dot-eco domain will only cost you 50 bucks” If they care so much about saving the planet (which According to Al Gore we can’t wait any longer to do, mired in our apathy, and/or maybe legal battles) maybe they’ll meet somewhere between Vancouver and San Francisco and go on some camping trip to reach an important consensus regarding this monumental gTLD. Maybe there’s money and power involved? That seems to make men fight once in a while. Anyhow, best of luck to both of them. May they both win. And maybe everyone else who wants a top level domain will see the floodgates open too. And if so I’ve decided to start a .art TLD and I alone will be the judge of whether your art is good enough to garner this soon to be coveted suffix. Gentlemen, start your crayons.