Like oil, the internet powers the economy

Mark Dykeman makes an interesting analogy on how broadband internet service drives today's economy in the same way how cheap oil powered the industrial economy

Cheap oil was a hallmark of recent economic boom periods, permitting stable, continued economic development. Today, more expensive oil (not withstanding any recent price fluctuations) is leading to price increases in many sectors of the global economy, slowing growth by making it more expensive to travel, manufacture goods, heat our homes, and so on...

Cheap broadband Internet access has worked the same as cheap oil, powering the expansion of e-commerce, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. At one time people were limited to dial up access for either Internet or other private online services (e.g. the original America Online, CompuServe, the Well, etc.) As telecos and other technology companies gradually built a high speed communications infrastructure –- first in major centers across the world and then expanding to wider areas of coverage -– applications gradually began appearing that could take advantage of increasing communications bandwidth. Images, audio, and video applications grew tremendously as broadband Internet access became available.

It reminds me of a talk given by ZipCar founder Robin Chase on (the excellent site) TED.com, where she notes that the explosion of car sharing services around the world would not be possible without the leaps we've made in communications technology over the past 15-20 years (video here).