Re: <nettime> a reporter's questions about web nationalism

[Alexander Nekvasil <a8504902@unet.univie.ac.at>]

Francois Schneider <francois.schneider@noe-lak.at> writes:

> Interesting this question. I do not anything positive to keep the web
> within some national borders. It may just develop more nationalist separation.
> 
> But I see the point of limiting the distance. It is interesting if the web
> could recreate a culture of proximity. In the same way that you do not know
> all the stories of a neighborhood, you do not need to understood the
> stories of a local web if you live far away. The good thing it would be
> open to all the people of the area with the feeling of entering in a cosy
> space. It could also promote exchanges at short distance, which, if if they
> become travels of people or goods will not cost so much in Energy and
> pollution, not like when you travel the other side of the earth to meet
> with the person you got to know on the web.

It would seem that the point here is not _proximity_ , but _exclusion_
-- it is hard to see how the fact that a site is not visible for
foreigners should intensify the non-foreigner's affection towards that
site, except if exclusion becomes pervasive, thus leaving no choice.

Note that this ambiguity proximity/exclusion is also at the core of
discussions about the institution of property.

Which leads me to the pessimistic assumption that we are, in fact,
witnessing the beginning of the web's _enclosure_.

(This will also be the beginning of the web's profitability, of
course, following the well known rules of scarcity production.)

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