NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Terminology (and 767s)
I don't think that it's very useful to get hung up on the arguments about how the term "Network Neutrality" is defined in a formal sense, since as used these days it represents more of a philosophical umbrella term (much like "universal health care") than a technical term, despite its likely first wide use in relation to particular aspects of "Brand X" and such. In practice, any serious discussions of "network neutrality" issues will always by necessity include references to specific technological, business, or other aspects of the Internet, ISPs, etc. -- and it's on those specifics that I believe we should concentrate our efforts. That's not to say that words don't matter. Note the term "bandwidth caps" for example. The term is now widely used to reference any sort of limit on a customer's Internet usage, including "hard caps" (e.g., 100 GB/month). But properly speaking (as some earlier discussion on this list today noted) a bandwidth cap is perhaps more accurately defined in terms of (possibly varying) limits on available customer Internet transport resources for given units of time. On the other hand, the term "usage cap" may be more appropriate when discussing "hard caps" of total data usage beyond which customers may have service restricted or be subject to additional (likely measured rate) data charges. Finally, in a message that passed through the list earlier today, mention was made of Google in relation to a "767 party plane." Just as a point of information, as far as I know the only "Google related" 767 flying around -- sometimes referred to in the media as a "party plane" -- was *personally* purchased by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page from their own monies, and was *not* a corporate purchase by Google. I fully support Larry and Sergey's right to spend their money in any legal manner that they choose, and any attempts by commentators to inappropriately conflate a personal purchase with Google, Inc. corporate purchase policies seems highly inappropriate. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator