NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: New "Open Networking Foundation" may bring good -- and evil
On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com> wrote: > > New "Open Networking Foundation" may bring good -- and evil It's apparently perfectly suitable for an IncumbentNet. We had net neutrality because anybody could become an ISP and all those ISPs had to interoperate. Now we may have missed the boat. See: > http://internetdistinction.com/statement/#Network%20Research > http://internetdistinction.com/statement/#How%20General%20Purpose The problem with this new networking stuff was that the policymaking channels never, until nearly the last minute, distinguished the Internet as a general purpose platform, from other things that might not be, and recognized that that would allow us to develop policy in a sane way. Instead they persistently peopled their panels with at least one advocate for "next generation networks" without identifying the key characteristic that was at issue in considering those proposals: the general purpose nature of the Internet's design. They came close at the last minute, with their Inquiry into Two Under-Developed Issues in the Open Internet Proceeding ( http://internetdistinction.com/statement/fcc-two-underdeveloped-issues-da-10-1667a1/ ) -- which drew the key distinction. But they (apparently) didn't recognize the need to use it to definitively straighten out the ridiculous discourse, (apparently) didn't see how the issue would have resolved in the interests of us all if they had simply at bare minimum just drawn that distinction and tracked it, and let the regulatory questions develop within that context. Seth > > http://j.mp/dUdXhE (New York Times) > > "The intelligence in the original Internet was meant to reside largely > at the end points of the network - the computers - while the > specialized routing computers were relatively dumb post offices of > various size, mainly confined to reading addresses and transferring > packets of data to adjacent systems. But these days, when cloud > computing means a lot of the information is stored and processed on > computers out on the network, there is growing need for more > intelligent control systems to orchestrate the behavior of thousands > of routing machines. It will make it possible, for example, for > managers of large networks to program their network to prioritize > certain types of data, perhaps to ensure quality of service or to add > security to certain portions of a network." > > - - - > > I must admit that I'm disappointed that John Markoff of the Times > generated what seems to be a "puff piece" on this topic, that failed > to even mention the potential dark side of such an effort. > > While the stated possible positives of such technology are real > enough, the same mechanisms could be used to impose exactly the sorts > of walled gardens, service degradations, and "pay to play" limits that > are at the heart of Net Neutrality concerns, as dominant ISPs in > particular would be tempted to leverage this technology to further > restrict user applications to the benefit of their own profit centers. > > With strong, enforceable Net Neutrality regulations -- hard to > visualize coming to pass in the current political environment -- such > technology might be manageable in a fair and balanced way. Without > such a regulatory framework, the broad deployment of such technology > could be a disaster for ordinary Internet users. > > --Lauren-- > Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren > Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org > Founder: > - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org > - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org > - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com > Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy > Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com > Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein > Google Buzz: http://j.mp/laurenbuzz > Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein > Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com > > > > >