Only 20% of the developing world’s population has access to the web. Their connection is expanding rapidly… and its predominantly expected to come via mobile devices.

The quote you close with is sadly true. Historically we can see that the potentials of television for civic engagement, better elections, etc. (in the U.S. certainly) were thoroughly corrupted… to the point that now a major root of the problem of money in politics can be attributed to MEDIA COSTS!… On what should be recognized as a critical PUBLICLY ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGY!

The Internet landscape is being rapidly carved up into private fiefdoms.

I strongly, even urgently (at considerable personal sacrifice; I’m without support or connections) have been pointing out that at least one corner (a critical corner in my opinion) should be reserved to the Commons… to ALL of humanity.

At its root, a civilization (or any social organism) is a product of individual and group decisions (ideas+actions) operating within the confines of the physical environment and natural law.

We then see culture as the expression of this “social energy”.

Money was developed originally as a technology for the allocation of excess social energy where complexity (and loss of various forms of proximity) required conventions beyond the less formalized methods of a hunter-gatherer group.

I believe this suggest some re-thinking about the nature of money and capital (and capital creation) but that’s another story…

The point here is that the nature of this “social energy” in a scaled organism requires that the exchange of this energy NOT be bound by transaction costs or other complications IN AREAS RELATED TO COMMONS-DEDICATED FUNCTIONS ESPECIALLY…

These particular areas of exchange actually pre-date the need for or existence of the commercial transaction and require special attention.

This problem (which extends also into the political participation sphere especially) is directly linked to neglected scaling issues in this new landscape… and the capabilities required for Commons-oriented transactions in that space… and why that requires a viable, simple and secure MICRO-transaction.

The Commons-dedicated Account* System:

*A self-supporting , Commons-owned neutral network of accounts for both political and charitable monetary contribution… which for fundamental reasons of scale must allow a viable micro-transaction. Such a network ideally should maintain its own cloud and bank. Accounts may be created and/or maintained with zero balances and/or only momentary balances during a pass-through transfer (I believe the monetization model requires no burden on the actual transaction.)

Its use of existing currencies is unavoidable but need not be the only currencies … (in other words it can facilitate the development of local or specialized currencies)…

The utility of such a distributed, Commons-owned and governed network… which maintains its OWN CLOUD AND BANKING (ultimately including credit creation)… then becomes a vital, global LANDSCAPE for human development…

However the critical first step is to to catalyze the network WHILE THE EXISTING STRUCTURE STILL EXISTS!

Decision Technologies: Currencies and the Social Contract
http://culturalengineer.blogspot.com/2010/07/decision-technologies-currencies-and.html