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April 6, 2008

Swarming the Oligopoly

Susan Crawford posted the text of her remarks at last week's Freedom to Connect conference in Washington, DC. Though we often think of the Internet as a public good, it's not managed by any government or public entity. In fact, it's self-organized to a great extent; the closest thing to governance is ICANN, which was necessary to manage policy around domain names. However the existence of the Internet depends on a few large network operators, and those companies form an oligopoly, which "means that there are few sellers of this access, and all of them act while considering the profits of their industry as a whole." Susan says more about oligopoly - it has "enormous market power, different in degree only from that of a true monopolist. It is the same kind of power."

How do ordinary people avoid being statistical consumers in this context, in favor of becoming empowered users? Susan calls on John Kenneth Galbraith and the world of music for the answer.

She says that Galbraith

pointed out that although in the competitive world we think that other lateral competitors will ensure that action of market-dominant actors will ensure that behavior is socially desirable, instead in this oligopolist world restraint on private power comes from the opposite side of the market. From retailers of the “product” (here, internet access is the “product,” so retailers are ISPs) or consumers or users of that product. His name for this constraining power was “countervailing power.”

The music connection is that Galbraith always led the singing on New Year's Eve, and Susan (through many supporters, including yours truly) came up with a way to "lead the singing" about the web. It's not so much songs, but stories:

We need to have users tell their own stories — not about technology, not about gadgets, but about how their own ideals have been joined to action (facilitated, made possible) by access to the internet. Each of us has these ideals. Our challenge is to show the world how access to the internet has made significant lives even more significant.

The oligopoly is still business, and anyone in business will tell you that the customer is always important, even if you're an oligopoly. If all the "customers" or consumers or users are getting together and talking, they're also creating a force that can be relevant to your business... better to listen to them and find out what makes them happy, than to exploit them without regard for their passions and concerns.

jon posted this at 10:18 AM
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