David Weinberger says that the internet that we are all a part of is the key to freedom, progress, democracy, and fighting terrorism.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [May 17, 2005]

David Weinberger was chosen to speak last at the Freedom To Connect conference, to provide a conclusion. He is a curious speaker. Drawn to the stage like a child forced to speak in front of the class, Weinberger has understood and explained the web better than most during its short history to date. As a co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto (read chapter one here), he saw that the web would bring meaning to life by connecting people. He also wrote Small Pieces Loosely Joined a book that further highlights the individualizing and self-realizing potential of the web.

But he is curiously unwilling to promote himself in person and dislikes praise. When I asked him what he does, he replied, "nothing." I posted this on the F2C message board, which is projected on a screen in the movie theater where the conference takes place, and it got a laugh. David Isenberg, himself a luminary of the net, was thrilled to have Weinberger as a speaker at the Freedom To Connect conference and was praising him until he looked down from the stage at Weinberger and stopped talking, saying, "David is cringing in his seat."

So the unwilling messenger goes up on stage and seems to want to hide behind the podium. Then he starts speaking and the messenger is possessed by the message.

Freedom is democracy
Weinberger said that some internet successes, such as the Wikipedia are not plausible. "It works because human nature is so fucking good," he says. It works in fact but not in theory.

Weinberger talked about the biggest problem we face today, terrorism and encouraging the spread of democracy. At the Madrid Conference on Terrorism, held on the anniversary of the Madrid bombing, March 11, 2005, several people including Isenberg and Weinberger drafted a statement, "The Infrastructure of Democracy", calling for a free internet as a precondition for democracy, enlightenment, and progress.

WISP CEO and consultant Marlon Schafer told us much the same in 2003 when he said, "our nation, and the world, need good communications. They will enable us to prosper, and to better educate people, which will fight terrorism. People need to be educated about what the truth is."

"The Infrastructure of Democracy" instead says, "terrorism may not be able to be defeated since it is a type of warfare, but the effort to engage all of mankind in this effort, on blogs and wikis and other tools, is a noble cause we can all unite under."

Schafer is saying that getting to truth to anti-American nations will bring peace, while "The Infrastructure of Democracy" is taking a broader view, saying that there will always be those who will feel a need to resort to violence. To combat this violent minority, "The Infrastructure of Democracy" says, "a connected citizenry is the best defense against terrorist propaganda."

"The Infrastructure of Democracy", most daringly, argues, "the best response to abuses of openness is more openness" with the following bullet points:

• Open, transparent environments are more secure and more stable than closed, opaque ones.
• While Internet services can be interrupted, the Internet as a global system is ultimately resilient to attacks, even sophisticated and widely distributed ones.
• The connectedness of the Internet—people talking with people—counters the divisiveness terrorists are trying to create.
• People talking with people may create divisiveness but the Internet is not responsible for that.
• The openness of the Internet may be exploited by terrorists, but as with democratic governments, openness minimizes the likelihood of terrorist acts and enables effective responses to terrorism.

"The Infrastructure of Democracy" says that governments should encourage the build out of the internet to reach all people, in the interests of freedom and democracy, and should avoid regulating the openness of the internet because there will be unintended consequences.

We are freedom
Whether you're building a WISP in rural America, bringing the internet to the third world, or fighting the trillion dollar telecom regulation fight in D.C., it's important to remember that you're part of something very very big and very very positive. In the end, we believe that the good aspects of human nature will triumph over the bad and produce something that is both a good business and a good thing.

— End

This is the conclusion of our F2C coverage. Tomorrow, we return to regular programming with a directory entry and an issue of DSL Prime.