John Malone; a former owner of Tele-communications Inc was the founder of the term “walled garden”. In regards to media content, a walled garden refers to the barricaded or exclusive selection of information services provided to consumers. This method is applied to generate a monopoly or is used to protect an information system. This opposes the idea of providing consumers with content and e-commerce via the access of an open internet.
A walled garden is also used to portray an internet environment that directs the user’s access to particular content or service on the web. The effects of a wall garden steers user navigation to certain areas of selected material and prevent them from accessing material from other websites. Internet service providers may construct ‘virtual fencings’ to restrict users from entering specific websites or gardens for various motives; such as shielding users from certain information example; pornography, or directing consumers to paid content that only the ISP supports and away from competing websites.
Today, schools are introducing walled gardens to develop browsing environments in their network whereby students have limitations in relation to the websites they are able to access. A password is required in order to leave the wall garden and browse the internet without restrictions.
This walled garden concept is quite unpopular with many consumers. Although it offers an easy-to-navigate selection of services and content, it is only a small portion of what the internet can potentially offer. It will only provide a confined user experience and a lack of diversity in regards to what the web has to offer the consumers.
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References:
Dr Gerald Goggins. Virtual Nation: The Internet in Australia. New South Wales, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2004
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