Let us bow our heads and have a brief moment of silence for the pending demise of our dear friend, Net Neutrality.
The Net, as its friends liked to call it, was a beloved and giving being. Endlessly supportive of all, even the trolls, because it understood the value in free access was that the idiots got to show their idiocy every bit as much as the heroes got to show their heroics. Now, as it faces the coming night fall to its unfettered and beautiful reign, we need to look forward to a cyber-world that only rewards those that can pay for access to the masses. Web stops like yours truly, Big Shiny Robot!, will be placed in a position in which we will be a metaphorical gas station on a lonely back road in rural Montana, while big pocketed suppliers of content will be like the Exxon Valdez, spilling their poison all over the information super highways of our future, deciding what the issues are of the day.
The only plus is that it isn’t a done deal yet, there still needs to be a final formal adoption of the plans which are scheduled to happen before the end of the year. The chances of getting the commission to forgo their grafty payday are slim. This is more important than whether or not Go Daddy’s founder is a doofus. It is bigger than Solange Knowles kicking Jay Z’s ass. The least that you can do is add your voice to the growing voices of the disenfranchised – us, the people, the target audience that this ruling will impact the most.