Shot Across The Bow - Angry At P2P, Broadband Exec Quits

[JackSpratts]

Why I quit

David Docherty
Monday December 2, 2002
The Guardian

Last week, I announced my departure from Telewest. Having banged on ceaselessly about the transformative power of broadband for two years, why do I appear to be throwing in the towel just at the point when broadband access is beginning to take off? I'm not, of course. I still think high-speed internet, massive increases in bandwidth and powerful video and audio compression software will change the way we work, live and use media. It's just that the idea of PC-based broadband content as a unique, integrated, blow-your-mind combination of linear, non- linear, community and networked assets is going to have to wait until the cookie monster generation grows up.

Cookie monsters (CMs) want everything for free. They think the net is an anarchistic space and that anything intended to commercialise it is to be fiercely resisted - even if that thing is creative, innovative and inventive. And in a way, we've all become CMs. We are all irritated by pop-ups, pop-unders, skating BT piggies, online surveys, and spam, spam, spam, spam. Most of us won't even give someone an email address to get access to their content. That's CM thinking. We have elevated meanness into a moral position. And, in a way, we get the content we deserve.

Look at peer-to-peer communication. The people behind it are fantastically inventive software designers. But they hide behind the idea that they are providing more choice for the CM generation. Peer-to-peer Cookie monsters are like Fagin in Oliver Twist - they just want to pick a packet or two. Whatever they say about breaking new bands and writers, the vast bulk of what p-to-p facilitates is simple theft from creative artists.

Consequently, the web has yet to become broadband- compatible. BT's broadband ads are like a kind of cargo cult. It's as if we're all supposed to close our eyes and wish hard and then the web will turn into a God-given cornucopia. The truth is that www is still a jumble of (mostly free) text, graphics, blogs and communication (except for porn, where video is, ahem, the rising form.) I still have a love affair with the web (and indeed commissioned a web drama recently out of my own pocket), but I still believe the internet was born out of a higher purpose than the current web. It was designed for the public (as opposed to pubic) good and I still think its destiny is grander than its present. We can't have put hundreds of billions of dollars into the ground and the sky just so that teenage boys can find something to do with both hands. But it's going to take time to change our views about paying for stand-alone content, no matter how good. And while the capital markets are closed to PC-based content, it's time to look for other ways to develop the medium.

My second reason for moving on is that broadband is in danger of becoming a nuisance word. Like any other nuisance word - such as, say, "objectivity" - it is vague rather than precise and opaque rather than clear. But as with all nuisance words, the fact that the concept is open to debate, tells us something about the problem it is trying to solve. The internet world is split between broadband pragmatists and broadband dreamers. For the former, "broadband" is simply a faster way of getting to newsgroups and the web. For the latter, "broadband" will transform the internet into the on-demand and interactive media delivery mechanism of the future. And for the next few years, the pragmatists will gain the upper hand. But I've always believed that even pragmatists need to dream. And I still see signs that the high-speed internet dream will come true.

For a start, bandwidth will become more plentiful over the next 10 years. Second, governments are getting seriously involved. The internet is great for schools and the public sector and high- speed web-based homeworking and networking will enhance our kids' abilities to learn and communicate. Third, the big boys and girls are determined to make money out of it and will keep going until they do. Fourth, peer-to-peer technologies will provide breakthroughs in low-cost distribution. Fifth, the recession will end and advertisers will wake up to the power of next interactive generation content. Sixth, the mobile and wireless revolution will mesh with broadband wires to give us roaming access to content. And, seventh, all new media devices will be internet compatible, changing the way we gain access to media.

So, as I sign off formally from Telewest, I'm going to continue with the broadband stuff that fascinates me. I'll carry on with Living Health, our NHS-funded project, our network gaming development for Sony, and new ventures that exploit the breakthrough technologies. There is one last side-benefit of moving on. For the past two years, when I've told people at parties what I do, I've been met with blank incomprehension. At least now I can say, "Oh, I'm a novelist" (for the time being).
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediagua...852024,00.html

As usual, it's the customer's fault. - js.