Michael Gracie

I am going to prequalify this post by saying it is not a solicitation for a back-patting - anyone who knows me already understands I detest it. If you are telling me how good a job I did, or something like that, I immediately assume you are an ass-kissing non-contributor (team efforts are what it is all about), and you are immediately written off as such.

Now, on to business.

Some years back, I spent some time volunteering at a local homeless shelter called The Road Home. First it was accepting and organizing donations around Christmas-time, and later it was a stint helping shelter residents with navigating Windows in the computer lab (fancy that, a geek in a computer lab). I found the shelter well organized, the people thoughtful, and the majority of the residents grateful for the help.

I left town not long after, but continued to receive newsletters from them. I never felt like I was being solicited for donations, although there was always a little envelope in the package, so I made small contributions when I could. I always hoped those sums would go towards stocking up the computer lab, as I felt like having access to resume writing tools and email would make residents’ chances of getting out a whole lot better. But I always wondered why they had some schmuck (me) in there helping out, rather than placing more emphasis on the idea of using the internet to help the homeless.

It seems that very idea is now coming around.

With all the talk of net neutrality, government snooping, and telco conspiracies, you’d think that web companies would be worried sick. Yet, nobody is running around like a chicken with their head cut off. Techdirt Mike thinks government meddling is going to increase the use of encryption technologies, and I could not agree more. I also believe that is exactly why those slaughtered chicken imitators are so scarce. Internet buffs (and drooling entrepreneurs) know something the bureaucrats can’t ever figure out - like life itself, technology always seems “to find a way.”

Get ready for open, cheap, hardcore stealth communications of the likes you may have never dreamed about (unless you are Kevin Mitnick or Bruce Schneier or Phil Zimmerman). It will be here sooner than you think.

PS: to add to the mess and the potential for distraction: as EmailBattles notes, more data is stolen from governments via burglary than hacking. The government should be worrying more about lock and key, security door, and window bar manufacturers, which in all their intelligence and glory they will probably move to regulate forthwith.

Telecomm providers are running scared. Shackled with old technology, piles of debt, and a thoughts of a bygone era, they continue along M&A paths without a clue as to whether their actions will make things any better. Certainly, much of the thinking isn’t going to change.

Threatened, the telcos turn to lobbyists (and in turn, Congress). Lobbyists push protectionist measures on behalf of their clients. Congress will propose taxation and further regulation. Politicians will convince the general public that they have everyone’s best interests in mind, all to rein in the cowboys (like Google, Vonage, Amazon, and eBay). They’ll captivate their audience with their “do-goodness,” while they fly around on some telco company’s private jet to all the town hall meetings.
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Email spam, spyware, ID theft, viruses and every other internet scourge took a back seat this week to spam blogs. Google’s Blogspot got pummeled by an automated spam blog creation attack, and now legit bloggers, blog search engines, and every other product and service with “B”, “L”, “O”, and “G” in the name is blaming Google.

Blame they should, but don’t hold your breath waiting for Google to fix the problem. Why?
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How did we get here?

I don’t love the internet, as it is neither my dog, my girlfriend, nor a human member of my family. I hope nobody else falls in love with it either, or they should find somebody to talk to about their social introversion. But the internet is extremely useful, and it has changed the way we do business, gather news, and organize our daily lives.

It can certainly be a “like”/hate relationship though, and I am wondering how it became so.
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We have seen a flurry of telecomm deals in the past few weeks. SBC gets AT&T for the enterprise book, and MCI finds a suitor in Verizon (hopefully ending their saga once and for all). But does it matter?

The markets feelings on the situation swing between exuberant to non-existent, depending on whether the deal was a foregone conclusion (see Forbes.com: Stocks Narrowly Mixed on Verizon-MCI Deal), or what after-effects the signed contract will bring (SBC to Cut 13,000 Jobs After Buying AT&T).

Again, what benefits are we going to see? I suspect there will be some alternating pleasures and pains.
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