Is the web communist?

Communist poster of the Statue of Liberty
Originally uploaded by shaneosullivan

Well the article actually asked if the Internet is socialist.

Wired did an article about this topic. Why? Because of the emphasis on collectivist solutions to challenges that should be capitalist. Case in point, Linux, which Bill Gates loathed with a venom replicated only by the US hatred of the Soviet Union. Open-this and that. Shared that and the other. All leads up to socialism.

Wired asked the question recently in an article called "The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society is Coming Online." Even Facebook and the like are simply social-activist sites and tools of the proletariate.

Or not... I think in spite of the underpinings that smell of socialism, the web is still a pretty capitalistic place. Any space that can harbor a large albeit fictitious economy callled 'Second Life' can't be further from the writings of Karl Marx.

One thing I find fascinating is the "socialist leanings" of the web was born out of deficiencies in the "capitalist" IT industry. People got sick and tired of Windows' security problems and those who knew Unix longed for the reliability and security of that operating system. It become open-source because it's expensive to hire a squadron of programmers to build and maintain an OS. It was a model that seemed to have worked for Unix; many hands make work light.

For as many calls I hear for the 'data and information to be free,' I see and experience many times more schemes to get more of my hard-earned cash. And those that offer something unique and interesting get it.

What Microsoft and others critiquing the internet – I'm looking at you Sony Pictures exec who said nothing good has come out of the internet – fail to understand is that open-source attacks the weak. If your product is weak, you will die.

It's about as capitalistic as you can get.