Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Internet For Everyone? You Mean Every American

On its Public Policy blog, Google talks about joining the "The Internet for Everyone," campaign, which, just from the title, I took to mean the whole world. Since the announcement was coming from Google, it didn't strike me as that outlandish. What better company to strive for bringing Internet access to everyone? We live in the age of globalization, so naturally we think outside our own borders, or so we like to believe.

Then I read the first paragraph, which says:
Today Google joined a national initiative of public interest, civic and industry groups to help launch the Internet for Everyone campaign, whose goal is to make ubiquitous and open broadband access for every American a priority in the next administration.

Notice how the title says "Internet for Everyone" but that "everyone" is narrowed down to "every American." So the rest of the world is going to be left out? Perhaps there was a three word limit in naming the campaign, so "Internet for Everyone" was more logical, and gave a sense of something greater than "Internet for Americans" or "Internet for America" or "Internet for All Americans" if there was no three word limit.

Maybe, one day when "every American" has Internet access, the campaign will expand beyond US borders and fully embrace its title, actually bringing Internet access to everyone.