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Net Neutrality 10-05-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

MORE FROM:
Neutrality’ Is New Challenge for Internet Pioneer
an Interview on Net Neutrality with Sir Tim Berners-Lee By JOHN MARKOFF Published: September 27, 2006

[ . . .]
Q. Do you have a view about the behavior of the telephone companies in this debate? Is this simply traditional monopolist behavior, or is it more subtle? Have you talked to them to understand their motivations?

A. I have tried, when I’ve had the opportunity to find out, to understand their motivations, but I can’t speak for them. So all I can do is guess. But my guess is that it’s not that this is a nefarious planned plot to take over the Internet by a bunch of people who hate it. What I imagine is that it is simply the culture of companies, which have been using a particular business model for a very long time. So I think there is a clash of corporate cultures.

Q. What do you make of justifications involving quality of service, which would give certain types of Internet data, like voice and video, right of way over other kinds of data?

A. They say, “It will cost us an awful lot of money for this quality of service, and therefore we will have to disband neutrality.” They’re not actually logical. Some people say perhaps we ought to be able to charge more for this very special high-bandwidth connectivity. Of course that’s fine, charge more. Nobody is suggesting that you shouldn’t be able to charge more for a video-capable Internet connection. That’s no reason not to make it anything but neutral.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Interview 10.2: Sebastian Blogs, Life, and Advice

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Seb Talks about Blogs and Life

Seb Prooth

When we left Seb Prooth of Seb’s Random Thoughts he told us about his current film work on YouTube at YouTube.com Melting Clock, http://www.youtube.com/meltingclock/ and the success he’d enjoyed being part of the www.globalgeekpodcast.com “>Global Geek Podcast.

Seb, How does blogging fit with your life?

This is a really interesting question. It just so happens that I have recently been making the conscious decision to blog more often. With the effect of quitting a weekly podcast and having no other connection with the fast moving world of digital media other than my blog, I decided it was time to take things more seriously.

Aside from that, I usually blog when I have something to say. For instance, last week when Richard Hammond of the BBC’s TopGear was severely injured in a crash, I covered the story on my blog. TopGear is one of my favourite shows and when I saw the headline I was compelled to write something.

Where has your blog taken you so far? Where do you see your blog taking you in the future?

My blog has made my writing better. I have written very formally on the blog at times such as when I talked about the effects of Digg and being Dugg when I openly opposed telemarketers making use of Skype to sell their goods. I see that my blog has made me a name on a couple of forums. On a Google search for “Sebastian Prooth” it pulls something in the region of 40 grand results. Although my efforts in podcasting contribute greatly to those numbers, many of the results are due to things I have said on my blog.

In the future I hope to see my blog progressing as it has been. I enjoy the casual nature of blogging. I have the motto on my site “writing not for hits, but to hit with what I write.” If my site gets Dugg and I get 20 thousand hits in 2 hours, I will be pleased, but If I continue getting 150-500 hits a day for what I write without the assistance of Digg or other mass media distribution service, I am happy with that.

What you tell a younger friend to do if he or she were just starting a blog?

If I was advising a younger friend about blogging I would probably tell him or her to go for it. Definitely. The Internet does not need blogs about what you had for breakfast (unless you are a gourmet chef,) or what you did when you had 20 shots of whatever on Saturday night. The Internet needs blogs where people talk with passion about what they know. I can’t stand it when I go to blogs that are there obviously to benefit a company or to push someone’s agenda. We all have agendas, your blog is not the best place to bare your agenda naked to the world.

The Internet is a cruel place at the same time as being the largest and most resourceful – resource on the planet. If you are going to start a blog, and you want readers the first thing you should consider is if what you are going to write about is of interest to anyone but yourself. I don’t really care if Joe Bloggs (pardon the pun) ate chilli for breakfast. It doesn’t have any bearing on my life. But if you are blogging about a feature on the latest beta release of Windows Vista, or reviewing a film that has just come out, or maybe one that came out before you were born, you have an audience there.

If you don’t care if anyone reads what you write, then I suggest you do whatever you like on your blog. Remember, even though now a tired cliché, do not release a great deal of personal information about yourself. And the last rule of blogging is – ENJOY IT!

Thanks Seb, can’t wait to see where you take your blog next.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Interview 10.1: Sebastian Prooth, Blogger, Podcaster, Film-maker
Interview 9.1: A Conversation with Dr. Tammy Lenski
Interview 8: Marti Lawrence, Blogger, Author, Publisher
Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Morley, World Designer

Net Neutrality 10-04-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Internet Freedom and Innovation at Risk: Why Congress Must Restore Strong Net Neutrality Protection

READ THIS ONE IN ITS ENTIRETY

Net Neutrality rests on three guiding principles:

  • No discrimination against lawful content. Net Neutrality ensures that Internet users have the right to access lawful websites of their choice and to post lawful content, free of discrimination or degradation by network providers. . . . .
  • Equal Internet access at an equal price. Under Net Neutrality, network providers cannot give preferential treatment to their own services at the expense of competing sites consumers want to use. . . . .

    • .

  • Consumers choose network equipment. . . . Net Neutrality prevents network providers from eliminating competing equipment by making it incompatible with their gateway. In the process, it ensures that equipment choice remains in the hands of Internet users, where it rightfully belongs

[ . . .]

In 2005, the Telecoms Captured the FCC and Eliminated Net Neutrality Protection Following the Supreme Court’s Brand X Decision.

[ . . .]

In 2006, big network providers have censored lawful content and blocked their Internet competitors:

  1. Time Warner’s AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com, an advocacy campaign opposing AOL’s pay-to-send e-mail scheme.
  2. BellSouth blocked its customers’ access to Myspace.com in Tennessee and Florida.
  3. Cingular Wireless, run by AT&T, bars access to PayPal to make a payment on Ebay because it has struck a deal with another online payment service, which pays Cingular for that privileged status.

[ . . .]
The United States Senate is currently considering a bipartisan bill offered by Senators Olympia Snowe and Byron Dorgan, S. 2917, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act [Hyperlink to Snowe-Dorgan bill], that would restore Network Neutrality protections in place before July 2005. The Snowe-Dorgan bill requires that any content, application, or service offered through the Internet be provided on a basis that is “reasonable and non-discriminatory” and equivalent to the access, speed, quality of service, and bandwidth of services offered by network owners. It further prohibits network providers from blocking or degrading lawful Internet content. Finally, it leaves the choice for attaching legal devices to networks squarely in the hands of consumers, and not the Telecoms and cable companies.

A Telecom-sponsored alternative bill offered by Senator Ted Stevens, S. 2686, the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 [hyperlink to Net Neutrality provision of Stevens bill], permits Net discrimination to continue unabated. The bill provides no protection for Internet users and entrepreneurs. Instead, it merely includes a toothless requirement that the FCC study the Internet market for five years and file annual reports to Congress on the activities of network owners. Telecoms and cable companies are spending tens of millions of dollars in ads and big-dollar contributions pushing the Stevens bill to members of Congress. They view it as a small price to pay for the billions in profits they will reap as gatekeepers for the Internet’s content and users.
[ . . .]

READ THIS ONE IN ITS ENTIRETY

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Look Who’s Talking at The Blogging Times

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What’s the D-Z List?

Last week TechZOnline interviewed me. He’s a natural interviewer. He knows how to ask questions. I did my best to answer them with candor, but one question he asked has been following me ever since the interview ended.

He wanted to know what blogging was like when I started.

I keep thinking about that. When I started blogging there was so much more time — time to know people, time then to read everyone’s blog, time to comment on each of them too.

I hardly knew what Technorati was, but boy did I celebrate when my blog hit 750,000 of the 15,000,000 blogs back then. It was a small town kind of blogging. I never heard of the Technorati 100 or cared that an A-List existed. Still don’t know who’s on them. Really.

Now, I’ve got three blogs. Bookcraft 2.0 started. Other things are happening. Life isn’t simple — as it once was. But I still like life out here with the real people. I’m still a saloonkeeper’s daughter.

That question of TechZ’s bugged me enough that I decided famous folks should know what we folks who aren’t famous do that they don’t get to do, because they’re busy doing what famous people do to stay famous. (How’s that for a sentence?)

And you know what?

The Blogging Times agreed with me. We weren’t sure whether B-Listers and C-Listers are officially famous. The coin toss decided they are.

So starting today, you can read The D-Z List written by me, every Tuesday in The Blogging Times. So, you’ll know what we do too. Click the logo to read my first story.

And yes, the likelihood is high that you’ll see yourself there one day — unless, of course, you move to the head of the alphabet. Then you’ll be too famous.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Interview 10.1: Sebastian Prooth, Blogger, Podcaster, Film-maker

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Seb Talks about What He’s Been Doing

Seb Prooth

When Seb Prooth of Seb’s Random Thoughts and I first met, we had a comment conversation about a piece he wrote called, Blogger or Writer? Or Both? I enjoyed that chance to get to know a then new SOB in his “natural habitat.”

It’s been fun for this interview to check back with Seb to see how he’s been spending his time. The article that we discussed was posted last May 9th. It sure seems he’s done a lot since then.

Hi Seb! Tell everyone a bit about the guy called Sebastian.

Well that’s a complicated question! I was just talking about this very subject the other day when I was asked what I do, and I had to give a list of “occupations.” What do I do? Well I am a blogger, obviously. I’m also a writer, technology enthusiast and until recently a podcaster.

For my “real” work I am a student of media, and consider myself a film-maker. I am in pre-production on my first short film with real actors. You can see some of my current work on YouTube at www.youtube.com/meltingclock.

Other than what I do, I can say that I am an American residing in the UK. The reason for that is complicated. I am an old 20 next month . . . read into that what you will! There is a full bio of me on my website at www.sebrt.com/about.

My interests include all those things I do plus a crazy list of other things. I have this strange penchant for interviewing people on my blog. That started back on my first podcast “From the Director’s Chair.”

A little about my podcasting “career.”
I started podcasting back in December 2005 — I know that’s ancient history on the Internet — To make a long story short, my first podcast ran for 17 episodes, and I interviewed some of the movers and shakers in podcasting. In May I merged that podcast with another podcast I was creating with my friend Dave Gray.

Together Dave and I created and hosted what became the weekly “Global Geek Podcast” on which the co-hosts report tech news, web 2.0 happenings and rumblings in the podosphere. The show is light hearted and always includes a wacky news segment. Global Geek Podcast was nominated number 2 podcast to have on your iPod by .Net Magazine in their October 2006 issue.

I left Global Geek Podcast mid September to pursue other projects, however the show is still going strong with a new co-host. I hope that it will continue to grow and gain popularity as long as the hosts are hosting it! You can reach the Global Geek Podcast at www.globalgeekpodcast.com.

[Read more…]

Net Neutrality 10-03-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

The telecom slayers [via Eat4Today]

For more than a year, telecom lobbyists, who include former Bill Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry, have outgunned Scott and his ragtag army of bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs and consumer-rights activists on Capitol Hill. But on this fall day in his bare-bones office in Washington, Scott is grinning in victory. He knows he has succeeded in tripping up the lobbying goliaths with a simple weapon that couldn’t be more appropriate in the battle over the Internet: a low-budget video posted on YouTube.com.

In the unadorned black-and-white film, college kids sit in front of a webcam and talk about the evils of an Internet without Net neutrality. “Do you want companies to control your clicks?” a goateed young man asks the camera. “This means slower connections to sites that are under competing ISPs,” another says. “Let’s keep the Internet free!” After a guitar solo and a hazy image of the American flag, the video goes black and directs viewers to SavetheInternet.com.

In the first week after it was posted on YouTube on Aug. 17, the video was viewed over 350,000 times, according to figures provided by the site. By comparison, the infamous “macaca” video of Virginia Sen. George Allen calling a man of Indian decent the racial slur, was viewed 200,000 times in roughly the same amount of time. A testament to the power of viral marketing, the Net neutrality video “is doing the work of 30 full-time communications professionals,” [Ben] Scott [coordinator of SavetheInternet] says. “And the best part is, I have no idea who made it.”

In fact, the video was made in a little over an hour by Ben Going, a 21-year-old waiter from Huntsville, Ala., and an aspiring Internet filmmaker. Going says he pieced the video together because he feels that his hobby, his business, his way of life, is under attack. He is not alone. All summer long, hundreds of Web users like Going have flooded the Internet with videos and blog postings. An online petition in favor of Net neutrality has gathered more than 1.1 million signatures, and a letter-writing campaign spawned online has resulted in a flood of letters to Congress members. Barry Piatt, communications director for Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, a leading Net neutrality advocate, says his office has received close to 1 million letters on Net neutrality, “a virtually unprecedented level” of mail for any issue, let alone one as technical as this one. And the “overwhelming majority” of the letters, Piatt says, favor Net neutrality.

[ . . . ]

The battle erupted in the wake of a 2005 Supreme Court ruling, which changed the regulatory classification of ISPs and removed the nondiscrimination protections on the Internet. Facing fewer restrictions on how they could govern the Internet, the likes of AT&T and Verizon made no secret that they intended to create a lucrative Internet fast lane, open only to Web sites that can pay. Critics quickly responded that an Internet where only those who can pay the rent can display their wares will stifle innovation and choice. “Consumers will have all of the choices and selection of a former Soviet Union supermarket,” says Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key ally of Net neutrality.

Here is the link for the above referred to YouTube videol: Save the Internet

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE