Do you think the issue of telecom regulation has no effect on your life? David Isenberg, the ebullient and cherubic force behind this year’s Freedom-to-Connect conference taking place today and tomorrow in Silver Spring, MD, just opened the event with this startling vision:
The people of the world just got an “Internet dividend” of $1 trillion (that’s $1,000,000,000,000) a year, thanks to the efforts of “six guys in Europe” (i.e. the Skype VOIPers, who are blazing the path toward universal free connectivity). This is money that “we don’t need to spend on telephone service any more.” David asks, “What will we spend it on? Ending hunger? Buying the pharmaceutical companies?”
Now I see why David started his rant by referring to unnamed parties who told him that they couldn’t sponsor his conference because the topic was “too political.” The Democrats, he said, are in the pocket of Hollywood. The Republicans are in the pocket of the telcos. Too much money is at stake in this debate, if we the people figure out what’s fully at stake.
A trillion dollars. David asks: “Would you march in the streets for a trillion dollars?”
If you want to tune in to the conference, go to http://www.freedom-to-connect.net and follow the links at the top of the page for the audio stream and the backchannel chat.
Tags: f2c skype