Twitter is Over Capacity - Could it be the World Cup?

I am trying to do some professional twittering and the service is over capacity. In a way, I think the World Cup and Twitter and both symptoms of the information revolution. The monopoly of data is broken. We can no longer have what we know and watch dictated by a small group of white, male editors. The freedom YouTube is that anybody with a small, cheap camera can publish a message internationally at no cost. And once that is done, there is no way to stop the message. And that is power.

That kind of power has always existed. The difference in the information revolution is that power has shifted downward to everybody in the world with access to the Internet and digital cameras. Granted, it's not everybody. Yet. But it will be, eventually.

The World Cup is finally getting some notice by Americans. I credit that to our increased connection to the rest of the world through the Internet. Twitter is overloaded with tweets, I'm guessing, from World Cup followers and fans. Twitter has enabled immediate information dissemination of the one event that interests most people in the world. There is no way to control that message.

Now President Obama has authorized a cut off switch for the Internet in the event of a cyber attack. I see where he's coming from. A well-aimed cyber attack would seriously hurt our economy. Remember, the aim of the 9-11 hijackers was to take out the American economy. It is American economic power that the terrorists target.

But what if there wasn't a terrorist attack? Or there was one and, out of fear, the Administration didn't open the Internet back up again? How would we keep our journalists honest? Who among us believes in the integrity of corporate journalism when The National Enquirer is a serious contender for a Pulitzer prize? Not me.