The Internet is mightier than the gun

It could be said that having an army with guns allowed for international war. The countries with guns casually overthrew governments of those without to create worldwide empires. The imperialism of the 19th century demonstrated the strength of the modern army. Any fight against the government would fail. That is, until there came something that modern weapons couldn't fight against. The Internet provided a way for the world to band together, to share and spread ideals and ideas. Ideals like Voice of the Faithful and their abhorrence with the inaction of the Catholic Church after Father Geoghan raped young boys flew across the Internet. Ideas of public protest, such as flash mobs to condemn the Lukashenko government for corruption, found homes in the web. These are but few examples given by Clay Shirky in his book "Here Comes Everybody" about how the Internet works to accomplish common goals worldwide.

Governments in the old world relied on the idea that there was no group of people large enough to stand against them. Shirky explained that such a stance does not work today. The group behind Voice of the Faithful and their was so big and their complaints so public that Cardinal Law had to listen and communicate. No appeasement could be made so Law resigned. The connected Internet provided a way for the Chinese people to publicly show the destruction after the earthquake in 2008. When details were leaked that many of the children who died in schools may have lived if the public building contractors did embezzle funds, the parents were furious and launched a campaign against the government to which some leaders publicly begged the mothers to stop. Microsoft released details about a new video game system which required an internet connection in order to process the DRM on the games being played. The gamers took to the Internet in droves to attack the new requirements until Microsoft relented and took out the required internet connection. 

People have a way to make their voice heard. Shirky showed us how the power can be used to change for good. Thus the Internet provides the tools to make changes to governments and institutions that guns alone would never accomplish.

Equality in Software Enviorments

Finally, I have an excuse to buy a new 22" computer monitor! After intensive research, it was shown that a larger monitor helps women work better with a computer. This was one of the findings done by several groups of individuals who investigated the idea that the design of software has an impact on how well women interact and think about computers as a whole. Larger screens improved females' performance while males showed no real change. This topic is among several tests on how different genders interact with hardware and software. The study showed that many software aspects did not entertain to women, like video games, the term hackers, or ways that a webpage was designed. Why would it, as technology has increasingly become a synonym for unnecessary and sometimes horrific scene of sexism. Look at threats Anita Sarkeesian received when she started the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series. This culture and us with it need to change if we ever want to change the shift of females in computer science. 

DRM

This cycle will continue as long as we keep the same forms of copyrights and patents that have plagued the internet for the last decade. There isn't much a corporation can do to prevent it, so why not just make the copy free of all DRM? Pirates would still be pirates and the consumers would be happy. Take drinkbox, a game developer who made the outstanding game Guacamelee, which sold copies of their game without DRM attached. My friend bought it and gave me a copy and I was hooked! Demos rarely do it for me but playing the full copy made up my mind to buy Guacamelee when the next edition comes out. In the end, I understand that the corporations are trying to make the most money they can, but what they are doing neither works or helps. Let me put my digital copy of Robin Hood on the devices I want, not one device the corporation wants.

Spread Without Contention

History has proven that religion causes conflict. Christianity was rejected almost everywhere and missionaries were killed because they did not understand or respect the local traditions. Chaos reigns and more people die. I'm a Mormon videos focus on meeting people, not a religion. The messages avoid the historical preaching of, "I am right and you are wrong" and instead use people from similar backgrounds as the messengers. This is the kind of world we should live in, a world where we use the internet to spread the goodwill of the world instead of the hate. Stop making all the headlines seem like something is horribly wrong. Try to defend something good for a change.