Once upon a time in a land not so far away there lived a Queen. The Queen had ruled for many years in a land that had plentiful supplies of food and fuel. She was a good ruler and let life carry on beneath her.
However, in the last 10 years, times had become hard because the Exchequer had not been managed the country’s finances at all well and the country was at war in a foreign land.
In the past year the First Minister had been replaced with the day-to-day matters of state being handled by two brothers – David and Nicholas. They had put their efforts into a new vision for the country called The Big Idea…..but few really understood what the Big Idea was or how it could be made to happen.
One of the most critical matters of state was the control of information and each of the six Barons – each with their own Baronial Halls were constantly battling each other to control the information to the masses. The six barons were:
House of Hunters – led by Baron Jeremy – who was closely related to the Prince of Com and had a good degree of influence in matters of government
House of Living – nominally led by Baroness Liv – but the real power was with her uncle Baron Stone
House of Virgins – led by Baron Branson who had many interests and many females dressed in long red dresses
House of Skydivers – led by Baron Murdoch – who also owned many newspapers and town criers
House of Oxygen – led by some Spanish guy who had no name and lived far away
House of Chatter – led by Baron Dun of Stone – (but no relation to Baron Stone in the House of Living)
The rules under which these six Houses were controlled was led by one of the Queen’s Princes – The Prince Of Com.
Now the Prince of Com actually had very little power over the barons because the Queen was weak and the barons were strong.
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until one small boy (whose mother should have kept him in doors) said “Why not build a network ourselves?”
All the councilors in Mordor were horrified.
You could hear their squeaks through middle earth, but the little boy persisted, and soon others started to listen, it was like a fairy tale, but soon the people started to realise it was a dream that could come true when he explained how it would work.
He put it in a pdf so everyone could read about it:
http://broadbandcumbria.com/wp-content/uploads/Barry%20Forde.pdf
Now the Prince of Com and the House of Hunters were keen on this small boy’s ideas, but many of the Baronial Houses were not so sure as they would lose power to these new upstarts. So they started to develop new strategies so that they could keep control of their lands in the future.
In the meantime, the small boy decided to go into the countryside and talk to many folk in the land about the opportunities that these new ideas presented. The small boy, whose name was Lux, was accompanied on these travels by his loyal dog, Fico.
Everywhere that Lux went, his dog, Fico, was sure to follow.
Now, as Lux travelled the land, he discovered many people had the same problems. They were all fed up paying taxes to their barons for little in return and many were becoming very interested in leaving serfdom to become Free Men and Women – if only they could be brave enough to do it. Some small villages in the borderlands started to declare independence and the Barons became concerned. The House of Living – which had tremendous powers over many parts of the land was particularly concerned at the declaration of these new “Free Communities” – and the Prince of Com became ever more worried about the eventual outcome that this new way of thinking would bring.
There was deep unrest in the land.
Thanks to Guy Jarvis, for the following addition to this exciting story!
Much was the talk and grumbling in the digitally deprived communities, known as Notspots, for they had neither bit nor bucket.
The first community to break free from the Baron Telecom’s thrall was an ancient place, settled since Roman times and in all likelihood well before.
Abandoned by Baron T, anyways beyond the reach of his digital dog whistle, the good folks of Ashby de la Launde decided that action was required.
The question was what to do and the answer provided by the Wizards of Witham (South) seemed too good to be true:
“There is a 4th utility enterprise looking to invest in the first community ready to dare to reject the old copper gods and turn towards the light”
And thus became nextgenus.net/bookplus and that is another story.
Baron T fretted lobbyingly about choice and adoptability in the hope that the House of Living and Prince of Com might yet lose faith in the pure glass path and return to the coppery legacy of yore.
The stakes were high and the standoff Mexican until Baron T gained a taste for the FiWiPie and learned to share and that is another story too.
Please add your ideas on how the story continues in the comments block below!
