Politics and the Web's Future

Monkeyfist peddles a mixture of leftist politics and Web-geek interest. The intersection of our interests and perspectives often results in an independent, left view of the politics of technology. If Monkeyfist is unique it isn't because we're a group of leftie Web geeks. After all a group of leftie Web geeks is responsible for the daily care and feeding of IndyMedia, the most important cluster of left-leaning sites on the Web. What's different about Monkeyfist is the difference between leftie geeks building web sites and leftie geeks writing (about) them.

Thus, we regularly talk and think about the future of the Web: how it should change, to whom it should answer; what it might serve and what it might master. I have, then, been thinking about what XML means for the future of the Web. Does it shift any balances of power? Does it aid or impede the commercialization of the Web? Does it increase corporate control over over the Web? I have paid particular attention to the political aspects of the Web's technical infrastructure. Is the technology that will be used to build the Web for the next 20 years neutral, as many believe, or is it essentially political? And if it's political, what should or can be done?

Most analysts and politicians think the key political issues in the Web's future are privacy and accessibility or what's euphemistically called the "digital divide". The digital divide is just poverty + technological change, which is to say, it's nothing new. New or not, I favor closing it, but I favor closing the food, housing, and health care divides first. Some people seem only interested in closing the digital divide, an attitude I view with deep suspicion. In my experience, these people are either woefully confused about the constituents of basic human flourishing, or, as is the case with most CEOs, their concern is based entirely upon crass self-interest.

With so much attention focused on privacy and the digital divide, there seems precious little left for other fundamentally important issues: the politics of public schemas, corporatization of the Web, and so on. But in another sense these other issues just are the digital divide issue shifted to another register. You can assume the best possible resolution of the digital divide -- free, universal, quality access to the Internet -- and yet these other issues will remain, menacing and untouched. The divide will have simply moved from between those who have access and those who don't to between those who have the institutional power to determine what access can mean and those who don't.

After two years of piecemeal conversation, I figured out what I wanted to say about the politics of the Web, and I'd found, as much by accident as design, a suitable place to say it. I published the results in two parts at XML.com under the title, "The Politics of Schemas". I owe debts of gratitude to various Monkeyfisters who have helped me think about about XML, schemas, the Semantic Web, and related issues. I especially thank Bijan Parsia for having a sympathetic and discerning ear and Edd Dumbill for taking a chance.