PDF: Doc Searls say the web is a place

<p>This was the first time that I heard [l:http://doc.weblogs.com/|Doc Searls] speak and it was a rather enlightening talk. His presentation was titeled "What the Internet Is" (i think). Basic idea is that government is trying to rtegulate the internet, or rtather the content that is published on it (think political blogging and BICFA). </p> <p>Well as long as we think of the internet as a broadcasting system we are susceptible to regulation, broadcasters are regulated (decency anmd such…) But places, typically, and speech are not. So if the net is a place, then speech is free when you are there.</p> <p>The net behaves in different ways and we talk about it using metaphor. WE think of everything in terms of other things, and when we do this we borrow entire vocabularies (doc used the example of time, we think of it like money whcih we can waste spend, save, invest, set aside; he also used the example of life which is often related to travel: fork in the road, crossroads, different paths, etc…) </p> <p>Back to teh net, we build sites, with addresses and traffic thus it is like a place. But we also move content through it, sewnding files, or even money, so it is like a shipping conduit… </p> <p>Anyway this line of reasoning made me think of light: Particle or Wave?</p>