Balkanization of the Internet

[Woodruff]

The word Balkanization has nothing to do with the Internet and is being used incorrectly here.

Why do you believe it is being used incorrectly? Balkanization is a term that refers to fragmentation, essentially, such as what happened in the Balkans.

EDIT: The Wikipedia page for the term even references it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization

[patches70]

Woodruff, GreecePwns is probably correct. Think about it for a minute,

The internet started out Balkanized, that is fragmented. Lots of little points that had nothing to do with each other except that they existed on this thing called a web.
Enter the corporations who begin garbling up said points of fragmentation and bring order. Then enter the US government and other national governments who are bringing the interwebz into the domination of but a small group. When before it was wild wild west where anyone and everyone had their own little niche that was nice and private, and separate.

Not anymore.

What the author is describing is the exact opposite of balkanization IMO. It's about bringing everyone under the control of but a few entities, mainly national governments. Before that it was the corporations who were bringing about large swaths of the interwebz under their control. The interwebz started out balkanized, but that is being changed each day by TPTB. They want the control.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't balkanization the fragmentation of a whole into lots of separate parts? Does that sound like what is happening to the interwebz or did the interwebz start out fragmented and under no one's control but is now steadily being gobbled up by corporations and governments to control as a single entity and authority?

[Woodruff]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't balkanization the fragmentation of a whole into lots of separate parts? Does that sound like what is happening to the interwebz or did the interwebz start out fragmented and under no one's control but is now steadily being gobbled up by corporations and governments to control as a single entity and authority?

When it was "under no one's control", it wasn't fragmented...it was one entity. As DNS was inserted into the mix necessarily, it became a tiny bit more controlled (fragmented), but not in a way that actually impeded it, so for the purposes of real impact, it didn't fragment it. However, as the various government players gain control and begin to segregate it off, it will absolutely be fragmented. I actually suspect that eventually, each of the primary national governments will have their own "Internet", if you will, which will tacitly feed into the worldwide Internet but will be heavily filtered, monitored, controlled, and impeded as those governments individually feel necessary.

So I would definitely disagree with you. It used to be one whole, and it is soon to become many smaller pieces.