We stand at a time in history unlike any other. Technological advances have made the spread of information nearly instantaneous. Pictures, words, audio and video fly around the globe on a network made of wires and radio waves.

A little known Republican presidential candidate with views radically different from the established elite took up to twenty percent of primary votes in some states. He broke fundraising records and built an unparalleled grass roots network using only the internet.

The ongoing war in Iraq provides another example of the ways our world has changed. Soldiers writing blogs on their experience in Iraq, tech savvy investigators revealing gross financial mishandling. Traditional media has proven either incapable of, or unwilling to, report material which could damage interests currently protecting their monopolies. Average people with internet connections have stepped up where news networks haven’t.

A major commercial band decided to release an album online, and allowed their listeners to pay whatever price they felt was justified. They distributed hundreds of thousands of copies of their work and made more money than they could have using traditional methods of distribution.

People download millions of songs, videos, pictures, and books every day utilizing decentralized peer to peer networks. Bittorrent, Gnutella, Usenet, and Freenet, all allow individuals to freely share any information which can be copied.

We live in a world where information is no longer expensive to distribute. More importantly, information is nearly impossible to control.

Networked computing has changed the world in a way that is many orders of magnitude greater than the printing press.

The fear this creates in the ruling elite is apparent. Corporations are no longer able to control the distribution of media. Media corporations face a future in which they cannot profit simply from control of physical distribution networks; Networks they gained control of through coercive means.

Information is, in a very real way, power. Every decision we make is influenced by the information available to us. Controlling people is not difficult if you’re able to control the information available to them.

The debate about net neutrality taking place right now is primarily concerned with service providers slowing down or blocking certain types of traffic. Allowing this to take place would practically ensure the end of the internet as a free marketplace.

Imposing restrictions on the web is not only beneficial to media conglomerates such as AOL-Time Warner, it’s also beneficial to those in political control.

The only way to reduce corruption in government is to hold ‘public servants’ responsible for their actions. The established media has shown itself to be entirely uninterested in keeping government accountable, preferring to buy favorable market conditions for themselves.

I normally am opposed to government regulation. However, if net neutrality legislation prolongs this age of free information, then I think it may be a good thing.

Whatever grace period can be bought, you can be assured that politicians and corporate interests will not be satisfied till they control our access to information. We must use every opportunity available to increase transparency in government, and to accelerate development of technology that will allow circumvention of controls imposed on the free exchange of information. The freedom enjoyed by many of us could be in jeopardy if we don’t.

It seems like “Google it” has now become the de facto answer to any question with an unclear answer (is it strange that a man-made machine will provide a plethora of options to answer most questions?).

When the Internet became widely available a little over a decade ago, I doubt anyone had the slightest idea how revolutionary this thing would be. Obviously, that’s a different story now: in today’s world, it would be foolish to deny that this “series of tubes” (techno remix here) has had a significant effect on the way we think and live.

In fact, that last sentence is probably the understatement of the year. The Internet has so revolutionized the developed world that there are very few parts of our lives untouched by this force majeure.

The news reader no longer has to wait until morning to read the news, or wade through mind-numbing commercials to get the jist of the situation on CNN. Instead, the news is available to anyone who wants it, anytime and anywhere. All available in a dizzying number of customizable formats: email, text message, RSS reader, and the list goes on.  And not just read the news! They can share it with friends through email, recommend it to total strangers on StumbleUpon or reddit, and discuss it with a healthy vigor (Google even lets you make your case if you’re the subject of an article and there’s more on the topic in this NPR podcast).

Traditional media now has some very, very stiff competition. The behemoths are slowly catching on, lest the Internet leaves them in it’s dust. To be fair, there are exceptions to this. One of my favorites is the BBC, who have always provided excellent content for as long as I can remember, and continue to do so even today.

This radical shift is by no means limited to just the news: almost any topic you can think of will do. The accessibility of the the Internet now means music like Mongolian folk rock (video) is just as readily available as Paul Simon (an even better example might be Finnish band, the Leningrad Cowboy’s performance of Sweet Home Alabama, with the official Soviet Red Army Choir. I’m not kidding). It’s an open secret that the Internet is not so slowly eating up music labels profits (IMO, Janis Ians The Internet Debacle is still a classic on the topic).

The list goes on and on:

Wikipedia has made knowledge sexy again. In what other world can you carry a whole encyclopedia in your back pocket?

Traffic is getting more difficult to battle, and work sites are more expensive (and many other reasons), more people are beginning to working from home. Businesses are also finding that this is more productive (and cheaper), and so more are allowing their staff “telecommute“. Some have never even met their colleagues, even though they work together regularly.

Shopping too has become a lot easier (a slight understatement, I admit). From groceries to books, to shoes, and just about anything you can think of.

The Internet has also managed to destabilize the traditional balance of power of society by allowing everyone to participate. By bringing lots of small voices together, the little man is now making enough noise to make a difference. American politics (with Howard Dean, Ron Paul, and more successfully, Barack Obama) is a perfect example of this. Governments who have tried to control the volume can attest to the difficulty of doing this (Egypt had this experience a few years ago, and more recently is China’s experience with Tibet).

The Internet revolution is here to stay. Will you be a part of it, or would you rather be left behind?