Net Neutrality Links

I’ve added these links to the Net Neutrality Page today.

I don’t usually comment on this page, but then what’s said here is usually thoughts passed on that are either rants or one sided solutions to a complicated situation. Today, however, Scot Karp has changed that pattern for me. His piece,
Eminent Domain: A Modest Solution to Net Neutrality? jarred me out of my “watch the debate,” position into finally seeing Scot’s radical suggestion as one that would hurt, but would work.

So how do we fix this? Are we stuck in telco hell? Silicon Valley can ignite a political arms race and spend more on lobbyists, but why play an old man’s game? Instead, these webbies should get creative, change the rules. Bam-Bam, not Barney Rubble is the future. Take the telcos and cable companies out at the knees.

Here’s an idea: Start screaming like a madman and using four letter words–like K-E-L-O. And fancier words like “eminent domain.” I know, I know. This sounds wrong. These are privately owned wires hanging on poles. But so what? The government-mandated owners have been neglecting them for years–we are left with slums in need of redevelopment. Horse-drawn trolleys ruled cities, too, but had to be destroyed to make way for progress. How do we rip the telco’s trolley tracks out and enable something modern and real competition?

SPEED BUMPS ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY [via deal architect]

Check out this graphic:

How the Internet works. Chronicle graphic by John Blanchard

Ethical fog by Stirling Newberry

Chicago Dyke at corrente joins the long list of people commenting on the question of “should blogs take ads from telecos on net neutrality”. Bopnews.com has turned down these ads in the past, but there is no reason to believe that we will turn them down in the future.

Having used blogads at various times, generally with success, I think the paradigm that Skippy has gotten into – that ads are push that people are overly influenced by – simply isn’t backed by my experience. [Blogads] are essentially very gaudy links. Should we turn down Google ads because we can’t control the content? Several sites – like Brad Delong’s – have been very anti-Bush and his executive, and then had google ads that touted Bush gear.

Trying to draw lines that don’t exist – we should not sequester the blogsphere – doesn’t make any sense to me at all. “If you can’t take their money, drink their liquor, smoke their cigars, fuck their women and still vote against them in the morning, you shouldn’t be in this business.” No one has been farther out front against the telecos in the blogspace than Matt Stoller. Prudery when it comes to money is not reasonable, and this is prudery. . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE