Metaviews

The pandemic is now fully into the second wave and the tragedy of it all can be overwhelming. There’s a frustration that comes from both knowing that we’d arrive here, while also knowing we could have and should have avoided it.

Fairlawn Ohio is a town with a population below 8,000 on the outskirts of Akron, just south of Cleveland, where residents have access to one of the fastest Internet connections in North America. FairlawnGig is a municipal broadband utility that offers a stellar example of what communities can accomplish when taking control of their Internet.

The battle for hearts and minds rages on, and I’m reminded of a passage from a previous issue on the golden age of propaganda:

Fears over fake news are misplaced, and this focus on falsehoods distracts us from the larger picture, which is the evolution of propaganda. Rather than lamenting the decline of obsolete news corporations, we should instead be talking about democracy, disinformation, and digital media as scapegoat.

The discussion and understanding of algorithmic bias is still in it’s infancy. Arguably this is true of the study of cognitive bias in general, and the subjective nature of reality.

A recurring theme in the research we’ve been conducting into community internet providers has been the role of Ubiquiti. A US based manufacturer and provider of (mostly wireless) networking equipment and products. Their role in the community and wireless internet provider industry has been substantive and has been a catalyst for their proliferation.

Media industries are in turmoil. While this has been true for well over a decade, the pandemic has accelerated the demise or transformation of most companies that are still active in the sector.