Net Freedom

The right to a voice online, it seems, is of paramount importance all around the world. At Campus Party in Brazil last month, Al Gore called on the public to act in preserving what he believes is a system vital for democracy.  "Defend the internet," he said.  "Do not let it be controlled by governments or by large corporations. It is a network of people."
But there are signs that the web is becoming dominated by the few.
According to web analytics firm Compete, the top 10 websites were responsible for 31% of US page views in 2001, rising to around 75% in most recent estimates. Facebook alone accounts for around a quarter of all US internet traffic. "Al Gore's comments sound nice in theory but I just don't see how they will work out in practice," says Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of the Internet.  "It's inevitable that governments will be active online, simply because so much of public life happens online - and governments are there to enforce laws guiding public life.  "Likewise, I don't see how you can keep the corporations out - certain things can be done on the cheap and with the help of peer-to-peer alternatives but we surely can't expect that each of us will be laying internet cables to our own houses."
As seen at Campus Party, open source software that is free to use and for everyone to develop is a big part of web culture - "collaboration" and "openness" have always been big words for web enthusiasts.
But the internet is slowly changing, the internet has been flooded with the influx of apps. While often easier to use, apps contain content that is more easily controlled by the app's creator and creates a "walled garden" of information. This means more information is being selected and offered without users going out and searching for it.
This filter of information that is quite different from the free-for-all of the world wide web. And this shift in culture is having a big impact.