Why rotten is good.

The blogg written by Mags (rotten dot com) covers many of the ideas spoken about in the lectures. Firstly the sites like www.rotten.com or steakncheese.com (which does not seem to still exist) cater to a market or niche as described. Yes the content is disturbing but the philosophy behind the internet today is the freedom to publish any information you want free of conviction, or threat from authority that would otherwise occur in a non-democratic environment. Luke described this as the "internet democracy," an environment which is free of governance, where all participants have a equal opportunity to voice opinions, publish ideas and perhaps even become part of an internet community of like minded individuals, with out the fear of pro/persecution. The only way to control the spread of these ideas, or in this case images, is by controlling access to the internet, not the internet itself. This is achieved, in most cases, by implementing programs like netnanny, or content control as discussed in the blogg by Shannon (spyware) were individual companies or organizations will monitor or 'spy on' individuals to stop certain content from being downloaded or moved through their systems. The incentive not to download the information is then the fear of loss of privileges or in some cases membership or employment. No I don'’t agree with the content on the rotten.com web site but I do agree with the ideas and lack of restrictions which make it possible for a site like this to exist. The internet should be a full democracy.

Hamish