the new york times and npr’s morning edition are running pieces on the ‘lovebug’ virus and the phillipine ‘hacking’ [sic] subculture. from the times article:
“For the Philippines, on the other hand, the “Love Bug” and the hacker subculture that it exposed are an embarrassing advertisement of the country’s programming talent and infant dot-com scene. They also raised the issue of the cost of Internet access for developing countries struggling to close a daunting
technology gap with richer countries.While maintaining that he meant no harm, de Guzman said that Internet access should be free and that charging for its use was immoral. In his thesis, which his college rejected, he introduced his program by saying it would help many people “spend more time on the Internet without paying.”
this reminds me of the thread i posted to conflux yesterday that provides several perspectives on how the internet is transforming life around the globe.