I was doing some back reading of posts as part of prepping a different post of my own when I was struck by something that Tim O’Reilly - who by the way tried to trademark the whole Web 2.0 naming thing - said in his recent article called MicroHoo: corporate penis envy. In this post he stated

I believe that we’re collectively working on an Internet Operating System, and that it will ultimately look more like Unix than it looks like Windows. That is, it will be an aggregate of best of breed tools produced by an army of independent actors, all playing by the same rules so that those tools work together to produce a whole greater than the sum of the parts.

To which he added later in the post

So think hard about the future internet OS: ubiquitous computing, with a computer not just on every desktop and in every home, or even every phone and every camera, but in everyday devices, clothing, shopping carts, cars, pens, toys, buildings, roads, the power grid, even human bodies–and yes, lots of server farms. An infrastructure of real-time data services across that “network of networks,” with search (and search-based-advertising) only one of many such services. As David Stutz once wrote: Useful software written above the level of the single device will command high margins for a long time to come.

Now I realize that Mr. O’Reilly is accepted as being a very smart man who has had quite an impact on the Internet but as I read things like what he says I begin to worry. I worry because this ever increasing push to move everything we do; from the office to our social interactions, to the web we continually ignore one of the most important requirements for this Internet Operating System (IOS) - ubiquitous and equitable broadband access.

Or - is it possible that all these IOS evangelists do in fact realize that this barrier exists and it doesn’t bother them. After all what better way to keep out the riff raff who are polluting the purity of their Internet.

With increasing connectivity costs from the gatekeepers to the internet not to mention the fact that data caps are becoming an addition that no one is fighting against the barriers to even get on the internet are being raised. Even now for a growing number of people the idea of having to choose between putting food on the table or a roof over a family’s head is not just something of speculation - it is becoming a reality.

While some might suggest that this is bordering on fear mongering I can personally attest that this is in fact a reality for a growing number of people - myself included. It is one thing to be able to walk into an Apple store and plunk down cash or credit card for any of the newest toys or to be able to hook into WiFi while sitting at your corner Starbucks but I know from personal experience that the so-called technological divide is only one bill away.

And I am not alone in this real fear of becoming permanently disconnected from the online world. I am not the only one who sees their DSL bill steadily climb to a point where you are always one or two months behind and only by doing without something else one month do we keep the internet pipeline alive for one more month.

This doesn’t even take into account the rising cost of even being able to keep what computer equipment patched together with duct tape here and a prayer there. As it stands if that clicking drive finally gives out on me I’m done and I am not alone as I know more than a few people who continually walk that line and yet we are to believe that this IOS is going to be our saving grace.

The fact is the only people this striving for an IOS and the proliferation of Web 2.0 will help are those that can afford the price of entry. For those of us lining up at food banks and hoping they can keep that internet connection alive for one more day and then another the idea of being able to be considered a member of this new social web is becoming much like standing  outside the walls of a gated community.

There is a technological divide in this country and anyone who argues against that concept is is a blind fool or a newly minted member of the technological elite. Sure we could all strive to use the cheapest equipment possible and some free OS but the fact is that the real bridge across any technological divide is the fat pipe that is being forever taken out of the reach of the real people. Until that changes words and concepts like Web 2.0 and IOS are nothing more than tools to further deepen the divide that surrounds these electronic gated communities where a growing number of people are being locked out of.