This section of Lovink's book is the least personal, but I felt it contained some of the most salient points. I was most affected by the final chapter, "Hi-Low..." In Charles Leadbeater's stance that we have moved from a first internet to a second internet, I felt a strong sense of abandonment. The Internet as a site of freedom and of non-trade activity has moved aside for the process of e-business. Worse, Leadbeater argues that the Internet was raised by the Will to business. This seems to be revisionist history at its worst, a self-realizing argument that justifies a total convergence of an open web to one controlled by corporations.

The drive toward broadband has been a cultural slogan for as long as I have been watching television. Only recently did AT&T abandon ads that showed future customers doing everything with speed and ease. Broadband, according to the mythmakers of the 90s, would become linked to everything in our lives: computers, televisions, refrigerators, etc. The utopia has not happened, but broadband is driving the Net. I am currently writing over a $45.00 per month Time Warner Road Runner cable modem connection that I don't feel like I could live without and, to access much of the web, couldn't.

One of the keys here is the lack of consumer choice in the model. As the content providers continue to merge with the owners of the access tools, consumers will not have the ability to reject the prices and demands that corporations set. We are left to both access the Net in the way they choose and view teh content they provide.