Just watched the first episode of Virual Revolution, which was shown on BBC2 on 30th January 2010.

The program discusses how the Internet and World Wide Web was form and how it has changed the way we as a society have changed since its creation. I still can not believe it has only been just over 12 years since our household got our first personnel computer and now it feels I would be lost without the Internet.

The program talks about how the World Wide Web is the 21st Centuries version of the 1950’s/60’s  hippy revolution for freeh speec. It gives people the power of free speech and publish what they like much more easily.

One of the things the WWW tried to accomplish as it was being formed was that everybody were to be classed on the same level, no dictatorship or goverments say what you can and cannot know, a place for free speech where anybody can write about whatever they like. To share knowledge.

The program highlighted nowadays however that the internet is majorly controlled a select group of companies, in the UK we have Google for search, eBay and Amazon for purchases and Facebook for social communications. With these companies having such a firm grip on the internet I find it hard to believe how any new company could compete with these.

In todays sociaty we have Honda, Ford, BMW etc with good market shares in the automotive industry and the goverment ensures no single company has complete control over the market. This can be seen with the recent law suits against Microsoft and its anti competive practices. How is going to control the giants of the Internet? Are we still able to regard the internet as a free for all? Can we even control these companies if such a governance was put inplace?

One a side note I took a look at Top Sites in United Kingdom and it pretty much sums up the majority of web browsing habits for the British people… Was a little suprised to see spot 18 taken up by some adult site though. Or was I? It is reported that 40% of male activity on the internet is adult material related.