Internet today what's left for hobbiests 2424

I think radio maybe a more apt analogy, even though cars did grow the same way.

Because there is the same growth from something that only a few people were interested in, the government wanted to restrict it (not quite the same as Arpanet being restricted in the beginning), there was little use for radio while the technology was initially worked on, users drove the applications, then growth began, and there were government restrictions. It went from something that only the hobbyist and technologist was interested in, to being a household item.

What's interesting is that the internet still resembles amateur radio (which was there from the start of radio, and became a licensed radio service when the rules came into place), in that there is a framework for doing things but really anything still goes in terms of trying new things. Pretty much all of the radio spectrum is parcelled out, and except for amateur radio there is no real place for the amateur to try things.

The sad thing is that so much of what's new on the internet has become branded. Instead of someone cooking up something, generating an RFC, and it becoming a widespread protocol, things are started by companies and branded from the beginning. I saw an issue of Technology Review from some months ago, and it was dedicated to "community" on the internet, but instead the old cooperative and communal spaces, they go through Blog Inc, Craigslist, Freecycling, Flicker, yahoo groups, etc. Half the time, it seems like ISPs don't even issue email accounts and webspace, or at least that's what you'd gather from people wanting gmail accounts and some place where they can put their webpages for free.

Michael