“Go West, Young man,” the distant voice cried, and they went forth — an electronic frontier open free range of expression. The last hope of democracy’s urgings.
Websites crude virtual homesteads popping-up overnight: megabytes and megabytes of shantytowns, free space for all, free online auctions, sex and gambling. Blinking banner exchanges. The big come-on.
domain carpetbaggers, ebook dime novelists, cowboy bloggers, citizen journalists looking for a home, home on the range.
New robber-barrons sucking-up bandwidth and most of the real estate. Hackers, identity thieves, and talking head idiots destroying the rest. Democracy’s lost opportunity. No more frontier.
Freelancers like mercenary gunslingers — hand-to-mouth existence. Have laptop, will travel. All’s left are the “$” signs.
