Questions for the documentary “Virtual Revolution”

1.      The web is celebrated as the revolutionary technology that is great leveling of humanity creating equal opportunity, equal access, and equal potential. However, there are only a quarter of people on the earth who can use it. How do you explain the controversial argument here?

If only 25% of the world is actually connected to the internet, then it I not creating equal access to everybody (thus, making it not equal).

2.      How is Wikipedia the best example to implement the leveling ideas of the Web rooted in the cultural revolution of 1960s, namely the Libertarianism in the counter culture? How does it explain some of the digital convergences?

The Libertarianism movement was opposed to censorship and state control, Wikipedia allows all users to share information and to have control of the information their sharing. This is an example of convergence because it allows users to interact and generate their own informational pages.

3.      How does the Web make it possible for different kinds of digital convergence?

The Web makes different kinds of digital convergence possible by providing a platform for things like video, audio, and text to come together.

4.      How can the Internet become a challenge for traditional authority? Use the political landscape changes in some counties to illustrate your answer.

When people can freely share ideas on the internet it allows for them to organize and spread their message. The best example of this would be The Arab Spring where people organized massive protests that led to the revolution and the overthrow of the Egyptian government.

5.      Do you believe that getting information free can set us free eventually? Why or Why not? Do you see any concerns of the complete freedom or self-expression without limit on the Internet? Why or why not?

I don’t think that getting free information can eventually set us free, because the quality of the information will not be regulated. The concerns that I see with complete freedom of the internet is the ease at which people can now propagate lies. People can choose their information which is leading to people thinking that they can choose their facts. Facts aren’t subjective and shouldn’t be treated as such.

6.      In traditional media communication, it has the “vertical” authority. In the Web communication, it becomes “horizontal?” How do you explain the change? How does this create the possibility for digital media convergence?

Web communication is “horizontal” in authority in the sense that the users control the flow of information whereas traditional media is simply run as a business. This, again, creates the possibility for digital convergence by making the Web a completely interactive place for its users.

7.      Why is that the Web is free critical for the success of the Web itself? How does that clash with the corporate business ideology? How does that pose challenges for copyright issues at the same time? What will happen if the Web is not free?

The free aspect of the Web is critical for the success of the Web itself because the Web needs users to generate content. This clashes with the corporate business ideology because the control is not in the hands of one (or a few) person/people. This poses issues to copyright laws because if someone publishes copyrighted material to the Web, then even if they are ordered to take it down, twenty (or a hundred) more people can put it right back up. If the Web becomes controlled by a few, the interest level would falter, the content will become stagnant and static, and the Web would need to either return to its earlier free state or parish.