What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Michael Hedges June 1, 2011 - Follow on Twitter

New media, powered by the web, is a powerful global force. There’s a suspicion that political leaders live in a universe populated solely with like-minded souls in parallel with the new media universe. When the political and new media leaders assembled to address each other outstanding was the separation of communication. We've seen this movie before.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy organized the e-G8 Forum (May 25-26) ahead of the regular, old G8 meeting of regular, old political leaders. Calling the internet “the third great global revolution, “ he used the moment to explain to the internet and new media people how they need to play by the rules. There must be, he said, a “red line” beyond which the internet people must not go.

“The universe that you represent is not a parallel universe which is free of rules of law or ethics or of any of the fundamental principles that must govern and do govern the social lives of our democratic states,” he observed.

Critics of the e-G8 Forum pondered whether or not it was created to assuage tormented French traditional media owners, telecom owners, music and film industries. President Sarkozy railed against the “empires” created by those non-French new media giants like Google, who “contribute to drying up (of) cultural wealth.” The internet, he warned, “doesn’t simply ruin” writers, artists, musicians, actors and holders of their copyrights, “it enslaves them.”

President Sarkozy does, indeed, face French voters next year and, absence of opposing candidates notwithstanding, his standing in public opinion polls remains tepid. Politicians do seek love from their public. All politicians seek supportive newspaper publishers, hardly fans of unbridled internet growth.

A need to bring the internet under control, expressed by President Sarkozy, is, of course, shared by other national leaders. The Iranian government, reported the Wall Street Journal (May 28), is pushing a plan to develop a separate internet within Iran to protect Iranians from all the sinful stuff on the big internet, which might be, eventually, cut-off from regular Iranians. It will be, said Supreme National Security Council spokesperson Ali Aghamohammadi in April, “a genuinely halal network aimed at Muslims on an ethical and moral level.” The Iranian government is almost ready to roll-out its clone of the Microsoft Windows operating system, according to a statement attributed to Communications Minister Reza Taghipour (May 20).

From Thailand and China, Angola to Belarus controls have been applied on internet access, usage, commerce and content. The generals in Burma banned Skype and other voice over IP services in March and followed that up with a ban on external memory devices like CDs and memory sticks. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak famously shut down the internet and mobile telephones as the protest movement grew. It didn’t work out so well for him. He’s been fined EGP 200 million (about €23 million) by an administrative court for cutting off communications systems, Reuters reported May 29). And he’s out of a job.

Among the 600 or so new media, IT luminaries and academics invited to the e-G8 Forum were Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Groupon founder Andrew Mason. Rupert Murdoch put in an appearance, as did several representatives of more traditional media. And, too, there were about 900 journalists.

“You can make the internet safe for Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga,” noted Harvard University law professor Yochai Benkler, “or you can make it safe for the next Skype.” Benkler studies entrepreneurship in networked environments. “You have to choose.” President Sarkozy might relate more to French singers Johnny Hallyday or, well, Carla Bruni.

“Technology will move faster than governments,” said Eric Schmidt, “so don't legislate before you understand the consequences. The trend is that incumbents will block new things. Nobody who is a delegate here would want internet growth to be slowed by some stupid rule.”

“My own opinion is that most governments,” offered Schmidt defining the rift, “are having trouble with that shift in power. So rather than sort of complaining about it, which is what everybody does, why don’t we see if we can harness it?”

In the spirit of improving communication between the new and old world leaders, Facebook is hiring a diplomatic corps. “Facebook wants a person comfortable with politicians at the most senior levels of government, who has experience as a media spokesperson, preferably on both radio and TV; and of course, has 'a passionate belief' in Facebook,” reported the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s hometown newspaper, based on comments from Facebook spokesperson Debbie Frost. “It’s important that we have a presence so people can have a direct line to Facebook.”

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