When WebTV first hit the stores I thought it was a great proof of concept product. It didn't do all of the things one would expect from a personal computer. But, the things it did, it did very well. Using a WebTV made it easy to believe that that simple devices would eventually enable low cost network computing.

So here we are a year later. Microsoft has bought WebTV Networks. WebTV 'Classic' is selling for $99.00 (after a $100.00 rebate), and Microsoft's new WebTV Plus is hitting the stores.

Is WebTV the answer? I guess that depends on the question. The following is an excerpt from a letter we received last week from a friend who was an early WebTV supporter:

"I still think WebTV works great, but I got mad at them for their Big Brother tactics. It's getting worse too. They're heavily into targeting and spamming users with commercials from big corporate advertisers. The latest is a thing called VideoSpots in which you get intercepted by a VideoFlash ad as you access a webpage. I haven't seen a Videospot myself yet (I gave my WebTV to my dad), but lots of others have... and they're livid! It blocks the page and slows you down. What's worse is that it could show up on your own webpage, giving the impression that you endorse that product. One content developer got onto the WebTV newsgroup hopping mad saying that this competes with their own attempts to get ad revenues from the same advertiser. WebTV sure didn't think this one through.

As to the new hard drive, the problem is you have no control over its storage or management. It's all done by WebTV Networks and they'll be force-feeding you these massive downloads of content and advertisements that THEY want you to see. This pisses me off to no end and I worry that this is the future of digital television: one-way transmission into peoples' brains.

In fact, I'm now into media activism as a result of my experiences with WebTV. I'm reading a lot about mass media monopolies and the big six (Disney, Time-Warner, Westinghouse/CBS, GE/NBC, Viacom/MTV, News Corp/Fox). The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is pretty scary stuff. It was a spectrum give-away to the elite and now almost ALL the information you get will be controlled by a handful of people and slanted accordingly. The Internet is next. I'm reading this great book called "We The Media" which just came out. Great book!"

Anyone who has visited the technology section of MSNBC lately has seen something similar to the VideoSpots described in this letter. Click here for a demonstration.

So, is this what everyone wants? Is this what anyone wants? Do we really want Microsoft's vision of network computing? Click the feedback button above, and tell us what you think.