verein.internet : Ehrenamt, Leidenschaft und wissenschaftliche Geschenkökonomie

The internet owes its existance and enforcement to lots of volunteer groups and single persons. As with all fundamental innovations, there has been a huge amount of resistance first hand: not even the National Science Foundation (NSF) was ready to give financial support, only the US Navy. The praised "applied research" of today, wouldn't have produced the internet. Private enterprises would have developed the internet, which didn't seem to be pecuniary attractive in the beginning. Digital information-technology and internet are ownership hostile according to their technical possibilities. This goes along with the scientific ethos of "communism" (Robert K. Merton): scientists are primarely working for higher ideals, for honour. That's why they are ready to invest thousands of (extra)hours for an idea - in this case in an idea of computer networks. The genesis of the internet proves, that scientists need their free space to be "playful", to pursue basic research, that appears to be useless at first glance. Conclusion: we can see on the example of the development of the internet, how dubious and questionable neo-liberal positions can be, if they attribute the development of every kind of innovation to the "unleashed powers of the market": constitutional innovations need the merging of several powers.