What's up with this whole internet thing?

So I was just watched this video about the internet and net neutrality, and it got me thinking. Where IS the internet going? It's like when you find a cool new place to hang out with like-minded people, but then it's ruined when it gets "popular" because everyone-and-his-dog shows up with different expectations. Expectations, and the money to influence and change the place you loved, to mold it into just another crowded public area with screaming babies and sterile smiles.

What does this mean? Is the internet just another medium that's being taken over by the masses? Will we always have to give up on our private clubs just when they start to get good? I don't know, but it seems like we'll always at least be the minority. The commercial web has already crowded us into a corner, but we're happy to occupy our own little space if we get to remain in charge. The problem is that in a internet that shifts away from neutrality, we're told to pay up, clean up, and follow their rules or else show ourselves out. We lose our ownership in the web: it becomes their network on their terms.

Maybe market forces WILL favour those ISPs and networks that stand up for net neutrality, when consumers vote with their wallets. I doubt it'll happen: a de-facto cartel of networks is more likely, since they all stand to gain if no one gives the consumer the neutral choice. And I have an inkling that advertising and media dollars far outweigh residential internet fees.

Maybe one of those new-fangled high-speed global networks will turn out? And someone will have the foresight to ban the commercialization and ugly behaviour we're seeing now? Sure, it means the network won't ever make it big and take over "the internet". Isn't that just what we'd like?

The last option, the one that seems coolest right now, but least likely to succeed due to the sheer infrastructure, is what I might call a "hyper-local network". Imagine a mesh network connecting all the houses in your neighbourhood, as far as the signal carries. Here and there would be portals to other networks, and obviously internet connections too for longer-distance communication. In today's world of contributing netizens, this could probably be set up tomorrow in many areas. The locally-oriented network would certainly change the dynamics of sharing and communication, but they would be ours and ours alone. Although I wasn't old enough to be using them at the time, this brings the image of a web 2.0 BBS to my head. And I find it quite exciting.